Reactivation
by XDark-PriestessX
Summary: Robo-Knux was a forgotten, unused, yet brilliantly created robot. He sat, forgotten, in his casing for an immeasurable amount of time... until he was finally reactivated. Yet, when his sensors finally came online, he was faced with no new instruction, no new plan to carry out... what he faced, instead, was a base crumbling around him.
1. Chapter 1 - Activation

_**Activation**_

_VrrrrrRRR-zzzt._

 _Click._

" _Emergency Systems On. Loading Data…"_

 _Click._

" _Emergency Functions: Active._

 _Running Environmental Scan…"_

 _Whrrrrrr._

 _ **CRASH-BZZZT-FWOOOohhmm-SNAP-KSSHHHH**_

Chaos. It was all… immediate chaos. As soon as the robot's full functions turned on, he saw nothing but destruction in front of him, sending every one of his sensors into a panicked frenzy. Bright explosions, computers crashing, cables snapping, robots shorting, everything around him shaking violently, the world seemed to be spiraling to its end right in front of him and he had no time to figure out how or why. He barely had the time to dart forward out of his resting place before it was crushed by a falling piece of rubble.

The red robot quickly moves to a safer area of the room, where there was a less likely chance to be smashed to pieces, to do an extremely quick scan of the base to not only see if he could figure out what was going on, but also search out the most effective escape route. He searched out remaining power sources, finding that most other robotics were in ruin or out of reach but did eventually find one still intact. With an escape route planned, he took off, dodging falling rubble and sparking cables along the way. He had just been reactivated, he didn't need a destroyed cable shorting him already and leaving him at the mercy of the falling base.

As he moved through the cave of hallways, he reached out to the fellow robot to get answers, but only received a short, sharp 'Leave now' for a response. He was given no opportunity to question further as the programmed connection between them was cut off. He could still feel the other robot's energy signature so he at least knew he wasn't destroyed, like many others. That still left the question of what had happened in the first place… and how he had been activated in the first place. Not even his emergency system was automatic, it had to be turned on, so who would go to the trouble of turning him on in the midst of this disaster? Surely Robotnik wouldn't, not without a reason, and given that he was met with no instructions upon his reactivation, he could only assume it was someone else.

While there were few who would go to the trouble, there were even less that, he imagined, even knew how in the first place. He would have to worry about this later, however, because his escape route was becoming less and less passable. If he wanted to get out still functioning he would need to hurry. He knew there were at least two doors he would need to force open when he reached them and if he didn't pick up the pace he wouldn't have time to do so before everything came crashing down on top of him.

A brief thought went to the other robot apparently still in here, making him wonder if they would escape on time. Perhaps the other robot was ahead of him and already out.

He could find out later, he had no time to worry about it.

There was the first door. It was battered and stuck shut but could easily be busted down with enough force, which he had plenty of. Boosting his speed up and swiping his clawed hand down, he made quick work of the door blocking his path and carried quickly on. Many broken and destroyed robotics scattered the floor along the way, some cleaved right through, some bearing heavy dents in vital points, and some still that the only remaining shards were scattered everywhere. A robotic massacre was the only way to describe the scene in the hallways, though all of this would soon be buried in no more than a mound of rubble before too long.

He needed to keep moving if he didn't want to become part of the scenery.

Darting over and around the fallen cables, he drew closer to the second door, which would put him only a few feet from the nearest exit, what he would do after that he didn't know, but at the moment he needed to focus on escaping in one piece.

But then it happened.

As the other door came in sight, as he was boosting his speed again, there was another explosion… directly in front of him… he had no time to stop and there was no room to move out of the way.

 **CRASH!**

 **CRACK!**

 **ZZZzzt…**

The walls and ceiling crumbled under their own weight, taking with it the red robot that had nearly reached its destination. Sparks darted from the robotic parts, shards of metal were strewn across the area, the light whirring of a robot powering down echoed in the empty hall, a still attached hand reaches out, hoping to pull itself free, drops and cracks against the pipe jutting out from the fallen piece of ceiling, until all sounds and remaining lights are lost in the continuously crashing structure.

A graveyard of inevitable mortality.


	2. Chapter 2 - Repair

**Repair**

_Rebooting…_

 _Emergency systems loading…_

 _ **Whrrrr**_

 _Systems online._

 _Running environmental scan…_

"That should… just about do it… hopefully."

 _ **Whrrrr… click**_ _._

"Hey, hey are you working now?"

RK's visual programs finally clicked on again, or at least one of them, giving the robot sight of the face in front of him, large green eyes peering curiously at him. Running a diagnostic on his situation, the robot soon enough realized there was a monumental amount of damage to… just about everything, internally and externally. His internal computer roared like an aging lion, pathetic and dull, clunking around as it grabs at as much life as it could, while every short movement his body made was met with resistance and loud clanking. Everything was a mess… how was he still functioning?

Turning his attention back to the questioning face of the female hedgehog in front him, he could only eye her, though it seemed with only a single side, and attempt to make a response. It only came out as tired whirrs and more clinks, to which the girl's brows furrow together and she moves out of his sight. It was only then he realized she was into his computer, messing around back there with something or another, but really had no opportunity to do anything about it. He just had to hope she wasn't trying to dismember him and just activated him on accident in the process.

After a few long moments, the young looking girl, maybe 13, 14 at the most, came back into his limited sight, "How about now? Can you talk?"

RK attempted speech once more, having to really push his computers to succeed, but managed a broken, "Y… Yesssszzsszzs."

The hedgehog girl's eyes seemed to practically light up at that before immediately calming herself again and explaining, "When I pulled you from the wreckage I wasn't entirely sure how well I'd be able to fix you, I'm no tech genius, but it's good to know I can manage something."

The wreckage? Well, that made sense, he was broken nearly beyond repair, it would make logical sense that there was some sort of disaster he had been caught up in… he just didn't have a memory as to what it was. A lot seemed to have been damaged during whatever had happened. "W-wh… at… hap-pened?" his voice was an extremely broken, extremely robotic noise, which bothered him greatly.

"The base you were in was destroyed due to Sonic and friends… it was a robotic massacre under a flattened building. You seemed to be the only even remotely repairable robot I could fish out from there, though even then, I wasn't sure if I could repair you at all. You're pretty busted. Now that I know you can still at least switch on, though, I'll find a way to get you fixed up and mostly functional again," the girl explained, examining the broken robot in front of her, "do you still have any data left?"

RK searched what few programs and files he had remaining, only finding his own basic information and relaying it to her, getting an unsatisfied expression from his apparent rescuer. He knew his name and his model number… but that was about it at the moment. His systems were barely running on emergency mode right now, there wouldn't be much to get out of him for the time being. The girl seemed to realize this as she started pacing in and out of his view, her hands folded neatly behind her back as she went into deep thought on the matter.

After a few long, moments of her pacing and his attempt to retrieve more of his own data, the girl finally stopped in front of him again with a small smile. "Well, in the meantime I'll do what I can to patch you up and get you back on your feet. My name is Itara, by the way, I'm the non-biological… creation, of sorts… of a time-traveler named Mephiles the Dark. You'll do well to remember my name, because I saved you from sitting in wreckage and rotting away, and I do very much intend for you to pay me back for that someday," she explained, a slight grin spreading across her face as she spoke. RK had no recollection of this Mephiles character, whether that was because it was locked in an unreachable file or if he just didn't have information on him to begin with, he couldn't tell, but he would need to look into it further once he was functioning again.

He studied the girl, Itara, until she was out of his sight again and then decided to run a more physical scan on his own condition. He could already tell that one visual sensor was damaged, though how badly he couldn't tell just yet. Looking down now, he could see many exposed wires, dented and cracked metal covers, including a large crack across his right hand, and now saw why he couldn't move the left… it was missing completely. If Itara really planned to repair him, he hoped she had a full lab to do so with, because that's what it would require. It seemed, for now, however, that she was just working on getting his inner computer active and as many programs functioning as possible.

Looking around the room, RK could easily see this was no lab. In fact, there was only a single laptop computer sitting on a desk to the side of him that a single cord ran from, connecting somewhere behind him. The rest of the room was a dark, wooden one with a single worn, white chair in front of the wooden desk, a low, hanging light in the middle of the room, and a closed door. Without moving too much, RK looked down to see he was sitting on a worn, wooden bench, assumedly pulled from outside, as the scuff marks on the floor led him to believe. What kind of base was this, exactly? How had this girl even gotten him reactivated with so little equipment?

Deciding to test his vocal features once more, hoping that some of the work Itara was doing was on that, he questioned in a much less broken, but still entirely robotic voice, "how did you activate me? I see only a single computer in here."

There was silence for a moment behind him until Itara's shoes clicked from directly behind him to the chair off to the side. Turning slightly to watch her as she sits down and pulls a minimized program from her laptop up, RK could only sit in confusion until she answered.

"It wasn't easy, as I said earlier I didn't know if I even could, but I managed to get you hooked up to my laptop so I could dig a bit easier into your systems. I got you back online after a couple hours, but I can't seem to get you out of your emergency program at all," she finally explained, scooting the computer to the side a little so he could see the screen, "I feel like there's an extremely complex system down in there somewhere, but I can't get to it at all. I'm hoping I can at least get you functioning enough that you can get out of emergency mode and access it all, yourself. I'm not a robotics engineer, this isn't really my thing, but I know a few tricks here and there. Being a time-traveler is helpful that way."

RK remained silent now and allowed her to continue working, watching her out of the corner of his eye whenever she went over to the computer or to the door, assessing everything she said and did and running the occasional diagnostic at her request when she thought something was finally running correctly. All in all, it was a long, slow process, but neither seemed to have an interest in taking a break. Every once in a while a short conversation would be struck up, mostly a curiosity on RK's part, but Itara seemed to have no problem answering most questions he raised. Only once did she decline to answer and that was when he questioned her about her origins, instead shifting the focus onto explaining who Mephiles was, learning soon enough that she thought of him as a father-figure.

From the light leaking in from outside, RK noted that their work ran well into the night and questioned Itara's need to rest, seeing easily enough that she was no robot and recalling that organics needed rest to continue functioning. She just waved the thought off, being far too focused on her work to bother with sleep. He continued to watch and study her the rest of the night, noticing the glints and various expressions on her face, logging them and questioning often what was happening to cause them. He was sure all this information was already logged somewhere in his systems, but until he could access them again, he had to ask. Luckily, Itara seemed to have no problem explaining them, though did have occasional, lengthy silent moments before she did. When he questioned, she wouldn't explain why it sometimes took her so long to respond, however. The subject seemed to be a tender nerve for her.

The longer into the night it got, the more RK noticed Itara slowing down. At first he just assumed it was because she was waiting for something to finish, but then it became more apparent that the young girl was starting to get tired. Once again, when rest was brought up, she simply lazily waved the thought away and went back to her work, but as the yawns increased in frequency and the heavy arms grew more obvious, RK became curious if she'd just drop at any minute. He still couldn't move much, so there was nothing he could do about it, so he just had to hope she didn't fall on a cord or her laptop whenever it did finally happen.

It only took about half an hour longer before the girl finally sat down in her chair, typed in a few keys, and then laid her head down on the desk, sleepily commanding him to run another diagnostic and let her know when it finishes. He did so, but before it was even a fourth finished he could hear the soft snoring coming from the girl and looked to see her leaning heavily on the desk, both arms under her head and eyes shut. She was out cold. Figuring he had some time until she would wake up again, RK decides to run a full, complete diagnostic instead of just a quick one as he had been, and put himself into sleep mode, as well. It would allow all his systems to be scanned and some of them to reboot on their own. Besides, he couldn't move, anyway, so he might as well recover what he could in sleep mode.


	3. Chapter 3 - Metal

Chapter 3 - Metal

The smash and line of cracks that followed the collision reverberated throughout his entire massive body, right down to the tips of his shiny, robotic tail, bringing with it the most intense sense of hopelessness the android had ever felt. What was originally supposed to be a crushing defeat of his enemies was rapidly turning into a failed attempt by a desperate robot. The violent sparks coming from the grinding mechanisms gave his foes the sign they needed that he was nearing defeat, weakening to a beatable state, their consistent attacks were finally wearing him down enough that one final, all-out assault would finally take him down. His own inner computers were telling him the same, that if he didn't do something drastic quickly, that if he didn't destroy them all _now_ , that this was a lost battle, that everything he'd done up to this moment would be rendered useless.

Letting out an angry roar and a final battle cry, the large, blue, metallic dragon and the group of shining, yellow foes made their last stand. Energies clashed, lightning struck, onlookers shook with anticipation, and the desperate cringe of dented metal plates filled the heavy air as either side fought for dominance and victory.

With one final, fatal _crack_ the groan of a large, failing computer replaced all other noise as the rest of the battlefield fell silent. The large dragon had a brief fit of small, jerked movements before finally crashing to the ground below, the loud thud echoing in the resulting silence until the soft patter of rain on sheets of metal and sparking robotics grew out over the area. The shining victors made their return to their respective groups on the ground before they all converged on what remained of their antagonist. Pieces of all shapes and sizes, most with sharp, jutting edges where they tore apart, were strewn about the large, gaping hole the dragon had made and at the center of it all was the much smaller, original threat. The android's broken body lay twisted in the center of the wreckage, unmoving and sparking from the exposed wires.

"Do you… think it's done?" a barely audible young boy's voice poked out, breaking the wordless exchange of glances among all the others.

"Yeah, little buddy… I think it is, we won," the taller blue hedgehog responds, daring to move his eyes from the robotic wreckage and onto his young, two-tailed fox friend for just a moment. "…Let's go home."

Reluctant, the different groups started moving away from the battlefield, most wordlessly and what few words _were_ spoken were kept short and quiet, as if speaking too loud or too much would reawaken the beast. Slowly but surely, the area cleared out and everyone returned to their homes to do what they would to recover from the fight, from the devastation the rogue robot had caused. One group remained behind, however, watching silently over the broken robot for a moment in consideration of what to do with him.

"What are you thinking, Shadow?" the female bat questioned curiously, walking up behind him and resting a hand on the black and red hedgehog's shoulder, "shouldn't we leave with the others?"

The black hedgehog remained silent until the much more bulky robotic partner of theirs chimed in with his assessment, stating, "life functions are still active, however extremely weak and impossible to repair on his own."

With a moment more of silent consideration, Shadow gave a small nod and explained to his bat and robot companions that they ought to bring the blue robot back with them to repair and keep an eye on, just in case. He would explain no further, but the larger robot moves to pick the smaller one up at the request of the white bat. Then, like the others who had all left by now, the group of four left the battleground to return home to their base and also do what needed to be done.

"How goes the repair?"

Rouge walked across the room from the doorway she had just entered to the large computer setup against the back wall, her eyes scanning over the rest of the room and lying for only a moment on the blue robot sitting somewhat stiffly nearby. Though Metal had caused them no direct trouble since they brought him back and repaired him, she was still wary about having one of Robotnik's creations lounging around so carelessly. Especially one that had tried to destroy them all just a couple weeks back. Her eyes slid over the robot, however, not wanting to catch his attention too much, and rested more comfortably on the black and red hedgehog seated closest to their guest at the computer.

"As well as is to be expected considering the damage," Shadow responded after a moment, leaning back ever-so-slightly in the chair, "much faster now that Metal is able to help repair himself."

"Good to hear… but you've been at this for days, you ought to take a break and relax a bit. Even you can get run down eventually, Shadow."

The black hedgehog only gave a small grunt as a response before turning back to the computers again, causing Rouge to roll her eyes in moderate annoyance, "well fine then, run yourself ragged. In the meantime, I've got a couple… missions… I need to run so I'm going to be gone for a bit. Don't stay up." With that, she gave another passing glance to the robot before turning and waltzing back out of the room to prepare for her mission. Official mission in one case… extracurricular in the other. There was a very nice, very rare jewel in the general vicinity of the official mission and it would be a crime against nature to –not- make a point to go… see… it.

Shadow's eyes moved just enough to follow her out the door before turning back to the computer to continue his work, giving another small grunt of disapproval, having an idea what Rouge's latest 'mission' might involve. He had no interest in stopping her, of course, that was a complete waste of time, but neither did he see a point to her behavior. Surely there were better things to spend time and energy on than jewels.

"She is correct, you and I have been at this for days and while your general stamina is much higher than most and thus your need to recuperate is much lower, you do still have a limit," Metal decided to add, staring blankly at the hedgehog, who simply peered over at the robot. "I'm perfectly capable of running the necessary tests on my own while you rest, Shadow. I'm far more self-sufficient than Omega or any other robot you may be used to." Shadow seemed to consider the idea for a moment in silence before simply going back to work at the keyboard, proving once again to the learning robot just how stubborn he truly was. Since his repair and reactivation after the fight, Metal had watched and assessed many things about the ones who had decided to care for him instead of destroy him while he was weakest. At first his every intention was to learn what he could until he was fully repaired so he could more efficiently destroy them all next time… but the longer he remained in their care, the more fond he grew of them… or at least Shadow.

While he couldn't move far even if he wanted to at the moment, as Shadow had been smart enough to keep his mobility as restricted as possible by both program and physical means, it simply proved further that the group meant him no harm, despite his original intent. Not only did they decide to repair him in the first place, but even now as he sat nearly motionless and extremely vulnerable, they only worked to repair and convince him not to try destroying everything again. So while he sat in repair and with limited mobility, he studied whatever he could about Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and their surroundings, mostly trying to gauge WHY they had decided to fix him instead of leaving him to rot or destroying him completely when they had the chance. As it turned out, he realized, it was mostly because of Shadow. For some reason or another, the black hedgehog was interested in him and that intrigued him.

Beyond the three of them, however, Metal's presence and repair was kept relatively secret, for fear of Sonic or the others taking far less kindly to the idea of repairing the robot that so consistently tried to kill him. Sonic and Shadow were on much better terms than they originally started out, but there were still a lot of secrets Shadow kept from the blue hedgehog… for good reason. This decision, of course, also proved to Metal that it was best to cause as little trouble as possible for the three. He had no way of knowing what could have or would have happened to him after he was defeated and of all the possibilities that ran through his mind while his systems were failing, this seemed the most in his favor and he was not willing mess that up, especially after his recent failure.

"Once these sections of repairs are finished… then I will rest when and if I need it," Shadow finally stated as if the decision was set in stone and there was no changing this now fact.

"I suppose there's nothing I can do about it, then," Metal added, looking over what section was still running diagnostics and what section was actively being worked on, "though having my communications back online does seem rather useful."

Shadow gave a small nod of agreement, though was considering the possibilities of the robot's communication lines being back online and considered keeping them limited until he was sure he could trust the robot not to bring Robotnik or a horde of enemies down on them unaware. Either that, or Robotnik could possibly locate Metal from it and come back for the not fully repaired robot. Either way, it seemed best to keep communication lines limited once they were fixed, just in case, though the latter seemed far more plausible than the former considering how much he doubted Metal would want to go back to Robotnik after this escapade.

He warned Metal of this decision, so the robot wouldn't get suspicious when he noticed the communication lines aren't as full as they should be once repaired and the robot only give a small, knowing nod in response. Just as Shadow expected, Metal seemed to be just as interested in staying hidden from Robotnik as he did from Sonic. He couldn't very well blame the robot for it, either… sometimes even he wanted to hide from the blue hedgehog and that overly positive attitude of his.


	4. Chapter 4 - Return

Chapter 4 - Return

Their eyes locked, the battle had reached its biggest, most important turning point yet and so much was at stake. One wrong move now and everything could be lost, causing both sides to hesitate before every move, knowing they needed to consider everything carefully and make no assumptions. Metal's eyes glanced once more over the playing field, playing out every possibility in his head and calculating every response that he would need to make to keep odds in his favor. Shadow, as well, watched the robot's every move for any possible indication of his plans. He knew trying to read a robot was probably the most futile effort he could make, but he needed to make every effort to guarantee success… otherwise, he knew he was doomed to defeat.

The robot was waiting for him to make his move, silently challenging him to be bold and make things interesting, silently wishing for that challenge, that chance to learn. Four months, four months he had been watching the group, now he would see how much he had actually learned. The black hedgehog offered that opportunity when he finally made his move, one that the robot had considered, but not one that had a currently foreseeable path to blocking. It was a bold move, indeed, and the robot relished in this as he considered his response. Everything could change at any moment and victory was not yet assured on either side and both knew it.

The next few minutes dragged agonizingly on as the two powerhouses clashed in a battle of wits and personal strength until finally… finally… there seemed to be an unavoidable win. Both sides kept their faces as straight and unreadable as possible, but Shadow knew he was nearing defeat. The robot had him cornered and pinned with little options and almost no defense; he could see no other path and every strategy he considered only prolonged his inevitable defeat. With a breathy sigh, he made his final stand and accepted Metal's crushing capture with as much grace as he could manage, staring the robot dead in the eye as the final move was made.

"Checkmate."

Another sigh escaped Shadow's mouth as the hedgehog slumped ever so slightly in his chair, his eyes closing for only a moment before he shook his head and opened them again, "I hope you're satisfied, this is your third win in a row."

"Quite satisfied, as a matter of fact," Metal responded with a bragging smirk, leaning back in his own chair as he added, "but this last match was much closer than the one before. You tricked me a couple times, so I'll give you that."

A slight grin spread across Shadow's face as he took what victory he could get in this case, amused by the fact that he could trick an AI like Metal's. It certainly seemed like a useful ability to have considering some of the enemies he had. They studied the board and the outcome for a few moments in silence, each considering what could have been done differently to either lengthen or shorten the match, their thoughts remaining undisturbed for a few good long minutes. It wasn't until Shadow moved to start putting the board and pieces away that the door across the room opened to reveal Rouge, who walked in inspecting a small ruby and not taking her eyes off it until she reached the two.

"Have you boys finished playing finally?" she asked as her free hand moved to her hip.

"You make it sound as if we-" Shadow began, but was interrupted by the blaring sirens of the base sounding off, followed by a far-off explosion that sent all three of them to their feet and into a defensive position.

"What on earth?"

Before Rouge even finished the sentence, the three darted out of the room to find out what was going on, Metal being glad he was finally able to move about freely so he wasn't stuck in the room as something attacked. This became especially relevant as they realized –who- was attacking by the laugh that rung out through the halls.

"Eggman," Shadow cursed, a scowl had spread across his face as he looked over at Metal, "You ought to stay out of sight, just in case. He may not know you're here yet-"

"Why else would he attack? No, I may as well try to help fight him off," Metal interrupted, shaking his head, though worried how Robotnik even found him out, they had been so careful about his presence. But there was no time to dwell on it now, they needed to get Robotnik out of here before he caused too much damage.

Just as they expected, upon reaching the main lobby of the base they saw Robotnik in his hovercraft, causing a ruckus while Omega tried shooting the trouble-causer down without destroying any more of the ceiling. Shadow wasted no time in joining the fight as he jumped at the hovercraft, aiming to plant his foot right into Robotnik's face, only to instead hit the shield around him and jump back.

"Ah! Shadow, good of you to join us and I must say, thank you for repairing my robot while I was busy," Robotnik laughed, eyeing the group that had just run in and exchanging glances with Metal, a sly grin spread under his mustache, "but I'm here now to take him back and put him back where he belongs. Come along, Metal Sonic, let's forget these recent transgressions and return home."

"I have no interest in returning to you, Robotnik, you waste my potential," Metal stated rather matter-of-factly, "I would sooner see to your downfall."

In the time they had finished their exchange, Shadow had gotten ahold of his guns and was poised near Omega to take the hovercraft out, waiting only long enough for Metal to finish before they began their barrage against the outer protection. Rouge joined in by activating the base's defense system that was normally left in a hibernation mode, aiming the lasers at the craft, as well. The sudden attack barely seemed to faze Robotnik as he simply started laughing again and pushed a few buttons of his own, releasing a shockwave explosion outwards from his shield, causing both physical and electrical repercussions. The room, itself, was nearly blown away and all four of the occupants in the room were thrown back in the explosion. Shadow used Omega's large body to keep himself as grounded as possible, even though the robot seemed to have stopped completely and Rouge dove behind the security room desk as quickly as possible. Metal, like Omega, had frozen up and was caught in the blast because of it.

It took only a few seconds for Shadow to regain his composure and jump for Robotnik again to attack, knowing his shield would be down just long enough to reach him after an attack like that, but Robotnik swerved his hovercraft up and away just quickly enough that Shadow only managed to connect with a blunt side. Before he could land and jump back again, Robotnik darted off to the other side of the room and quickly used an extended robotic claw to grab the unresponsive Metal. Shadow's eyes narrowed as he darted for Robotnik again, but found out quickly enough that the shield had enough time to reactivate now.

With another laugh, Robotnik darted quickly back out into the sky, yelling, "I've got what I came for but have fun with repairs after that electromagnetic pulse! And thanks again for repairing my robot for me, but I think I'll do a much better job of it now!" Shadow cursed under his breath again and looked around the destroyed room before taking off after the escaping Robotnik, wishing he had kept at least one Chaos Emerald with him, knowing that he could easily take the shield down with the power of an emerald.

Rouge finally recovered from the explosion just in time to see Shadow take off and called out after him, but it had no effect as he didn't turn back. Putting her hands on her hips, she looked over the room, shook her head, and sighed heavily until she noticed that Omega was still frozen up. "Electromagnetic pulse, huh?" she questioned aloud as she walked over to the much larger robot to have a look at him, "that's going to be tough to fix… don't worry, big boy, we'll get you fixed up in no time, though. Maybe Tails can do something about it."

Over the next hour or so, Rouge did what she could to repair the room while giving Tails a quick call to ask him about Omega, having to explain about Robotnik's attack without telling him about Metal being there. She then got into contact with a couple people she thought might be able to help repair the base, itself, and got busy picking up what she could in the meantime as she waited for Shadow to return. When he did, though, he returned pissed off and empty handed.

"He escaped," Shadow growled before Rouge could even ask and slammed a fist into the closest wall in his anger. Rouge frowned, considered what the best course of action might be at the moment, then walked over to him and pat the arm that was still outstretched against the wall.

"Once we get this placed and Omega fixed up, we can go after Eggman again," she suggested, "maybe we can get Metal back before he gets reprogrammed or whatever Eggman plans to do… Tails said he'd come fix Omega up for us, at least, since all our computers were shorted thanks to that pulse." Shadow's fist clenched more at that but after a moment it relaxed again and he gave a huff of anger before putting his arm down to walk around the bat. They had spent all that time trying to repair and befriend Metal… only to have Eggman show up and steal him right back and no doubt turn him against them once again. It was infuriating.

RK turned his arm over a couple times, inspecting the glinting, curved piece of steel that had been attached to the end of it. Over the last few months he and Itara had put a lot of time and effort into various repairs and upgrades for his damaged body, but this and the black piece of cloth over his shattered and broken eye were the strangest. Looking back up at the small girl where she stood in front of him, he studied her expression a moment before asking, "what is this?"

"…It's a… you know, like a… it's a hook, okay? I thought it looked cool," Itara stammered, crossing her arms and looking off to the side, clearly embarrassed by the addition she made. "If you don't like it, just take it back off."

RK watched her for a good long minute before studying his arm with the attached hook, then simply set it back down and looked up at her again, "No, this is fine." Really, the hook made more sense than all the fur she felt the need to add, so he felt no further need to question it over the rest of her strange decisions. At least a hook is better than the empty space it covered, as they hadn't been able to repair his left hand at all.

A moment of silence passed between the two as RK considered all the upgrades and changes they made over the past six months, all the systems they managed to repair and everything that they hadn't been able to. Itara was doing her best with what she had, but without access to a full lab, it's no surprise she wasn't able to fully repair him. It was better than being inactive, at least. Besides, the young girl seemed to have a strange sort of… fun in finding ways to cover his broken outer pieces, which was entertaining to watch. So all in all, it could be worse, at least he was free of Robotnik and if not being fully repaired was the price for that, he didn't mind.


	5. Chapter 5 - Waiting

(Hey, author here! I just wanted to let everyone know that, on top of posting it here, these guys have an askblog on Tumblr! So if you want even more of them, you can find more of these characters, their story, and their world here: There's also side stories and art for them, as well. So come check it out. And now back to your programmed schedule.)

Chapter 5 - Waiting

"This is all I can do for the time being. I must leave this timeline so you'll need to continue and keep up your own repairs, but I believe I've recovered enough that you should be able to do so."

RK stared at Itara for a moment before looking back down at what repairs they had been able to accomplish thus far, then shook his head, at least he was out of emergency mode. "You're leaving already?"

"I must, I'll be created in this timeline soon and I, as I am, must not be around when it happens. Besides, there's more work to be done. That said, I will finally explain what you need to do to repay me," Itara explained, moving to sit next to the laptop she had used to first repair him. They had acquired a larger computer by this time, at RK's request, to better repair and upgrade him, but Itara still preferred her small laptop.

RK moved over to her side to see what it was he needed to, but remained silent so she could get right to explaining it. He knew this would be brought up before too long and he had, thus far, no qualms in assisting the ever-so-slightly larger little girl. While they repaired and upgraded him, he made sure to carefully study the anomaly that was Itara and learned a lot more than he suspected she knew. She was created, apparently right around this time, in one of Robotnik's bases by accident after he had extracted a small portion of power from a scepter in his possession. The scepter, as Itara had explained, held the mind of the God, Solaris, who went by Mephiles in his split form. The other half, the power of Solaris, was named Iblis and was locked inside a young royal girl from Soleanna.

Itara refused to explain the exact circumstances of her creation, claiming it was something he would learn on his own soon enough, and didn't know how Robotnik came to hold the scepter in the first place. Beyond that, he learned a great deal about the girl simply by watching her and how she reacted to certain situations and questions. The most important were the fact that she held Mephiles up as an idol and father figure and that she was extremely clumsy, both on her two-left-feet and off them. Every time she spoke about Mephiles and his plans there was a great amount of respect and awe in her language and tone, in stark contrast to the normal amount of disdain she held for everyone else, though she seemed to stumble over her words at strange intervals. He noticed it the first night he was reactivated, there was an occasional long pause in her sentences before she seemed to realize what needed to be said and continued on. When asked about it, she only got angry and refused to answer. Her clumsiness didn't end with her words, either, as she would more often than not trip over her own feet or any unfortunate cord that may be in her walking path. It took him much longer to realize that one, however, as she would usually just float around in the weird purple mist that seemed to consistently cover her feet. He thought it was weird until he watched her nearly send her laptop crashing to the floor when she attempted to actually walk. He learned quickly enough not to bring it up and to instead just keep a sharp eye out for cords whenever she walked.

She also had a rather vicious laugh for such a small and, honestly, very small child. It wasn't often that she would laugh in the first place, but whenever she did while they were out he caught several people shuddering and taking unconscious steps away. It seemed to amuse Itara since she tended to do it for no reason, though it worried him that it might draw attention they didn't need. They already had to avoid heavily populated areas and shop at some very out-of-the-way places, they didn't need to be drawing extra attention with her creepy little laugh. Then again, he was a Robotnik robot walking around dressed as a pirate... attention was inevitable, he was just, for once, glad that he was a robot that hadn't been used in years and most people wouldn't even remember what he used to look like, let alone recognizing him now. It'd be a different story if Metal Sonic tried anything similar.

Metal Sonic, as it happened, appeared to be the topic of conversation at the moment as Itara pulled up an image of him on her laptop before looking up at RK beside her. "Metal Sonic, the first in Robotnik's... robotic copies, you have plenty of files on him, I assume?" Itara questioned, staring up with an expecting look.

"Of course... I don't think I have all of them, but I still have plenty," RK responded, nodding.

"Good, because he's your target," Itara stated simply, pausing a moment to gauge his reaction before continuing, "I'm going to need you to... intercept him in exactly a year from... tomorrow. In the next few months, Robotnik will succeed in extracting the power that creates me from the scepter and next year is when Shadow and Rouge will go to steal the scepter back. They'll succeed, but, ...as you can imagine, Robotnik is going to send Metal Sonic after them to get it back. He needs to be kept away as long as possible so Mephiles can be broken out of the scepter and meet with Shadow, which is where you come in." Turning back to the laptop, Itara pulled a map to show RK the exact spot he needs to go, "just before noon, on that date, go here and stall Metal Sonic... however you need to. Fight him if you must, but get him away from his main route and keep him busy for at least an hour. That said, make sure you're gone and out of there and your communications are offline before the end of the second hour because Robotnik will be nearby and I can't have you getting dragged back to him after I went to all the trouble of getting you out the first time."

RK studied the map and logged everything she said to make sure he succeeded but then looked to Itara, questioning, "what should I do in the meantime?"

"Whatever you need to to remain intact. Find a way to keep up with your repairs but stay as out of sight as possible. There'll be a lot going on between then and now but beyond Metal Sonic, stay out of it. Unless someone comes specifically after you, keep as low of a profile as you can until then." Itara paused again, getting the look RK knew as her stutter-look, before finally continuing again, "I'll be back on that day and Mephiles will cause enough of a ruckus that you won't need to worry about keeping a low profile afterwards. With Mephiles freed, the big plan will finally begin and his true power can shine for all to see... you and I won't need to hide anymore. But in the meantime... just do what you must and don't fail in a year."

RK nodded once again, making sure to log everything that was said before once again speaking up, "how strong is Metal these days?"

Itara remained silent, seeming to consider the question but RK was unsure if she was actually considering the question or the answer and how to word it. It was a different look than normal. She tapped her fingers on the table for a moment before finally stating, "strong... but not as strong as he was awhile back when he went rogue. Shadow repaired him after that fight but once he was put back into Robotnik's hands..." Itara reached back to scratch the back of her ear for a moment, then continued, "keep any exposed metals as far away from his hands as possible... he's got a short in his circuitry that he's learned to use but he can't use it much. He'll no doubt try when you face him." Reaching up, she rubbed some of his fur and grinned, "this is why you're metal casings are covered now, in case you were ever wondering. Metal Sonic can short a robot just by touching it, I've gone to great lengths to keep that from happening but you still need to be careful, obviously." Pulling her hand back, she laced her fingers and set her hands on her lap, "sheer strength-wise, however, you're still much, much more powerful. He's stronger than he used to be, but you're still stronger." After another pause, she added, "he is, however, extremely moody for a robot... so watch out for that."

RK eyed her suspiciously at this, searching for a sign that she was joking but the blatantly straight face said she was entirely serious. He considered all this for a few long, silent moments, eyeing the fur that covered his body, having, in fact, always wondered why that was necessary. Now that he had an answer, he had to admit it was brilliant if Metal really was capable of what she said. Of course, that didn't explain the eyepatch or hook, but somehow he didn't think it went beyond what she said before about it just 'looking cool'. Despite how brilliant the child was, she was still just a child, piece of a God or not.

After Itara finished explaining the few remaining details that were left about his mission, answering his final questions, and making sure everything was in order in this timeline, Itara finally took her leave and RK was left alone in the small shack of a building they resided in. It wasn't the first time he had been left on his own, obviously, but it would be the longest amount of time since he'd been reactivated. He wasn't lonely, it wasn't in his programming, but he did have a few doubts about his mission that he could no longer question Itara about. He asked what he needed to know before she left, making sure he had exact details logged into long term memory, but there were things she also refused to answer and there were repairs they still hadn't been able to manage. But he would just have to manage with what he could for the time being and find a way to keep himself preoccupied for... a year and a day.

First things first... he had been toying with the idea of a job.


	6. Chapter 6 - Payments

Chapter 6 –

RK stared down at the young punk in front of him, arms crossed but ready to take action at any point if it became needed, though doubted he would honestly need to do anything. As brazen as the kid seemed to be, RK learned quickly enough who were actual troublemakers and who were just pretending to be. The actual troublemakers didn't take the time to stare him down for 10 minutes without budging an inch, for example, they just got right to the point. Just as he suspected, as soon as he made even the slightest budge, the kid flinched and started backing off, spouting some sort of nonsense to make it "less" obvious that he wasn't scared witless before running off with his little green tail between his legs.

Shaking his head, RK returned to his post outside the large hotel's door and got himself comfortable leaning against the wall, watching for trouble. Hopefully that was the last of it for the day, though, he was getting tired of the spineless cowards.

Ever since Itara left and he was left to his own devices, he had spent a few days just getting used to the idea of being on his own, not answering to anyone, and his ability to take care of himself. It was a strange feeling at first, and though he was slowly starting to get used to it, it was still uncomfortable having no day-to-day orders, which eventually led to the idea of finding a job. After further research, he realized the best way to keep himself busy and up with repairs would be finding a source of income, though knew it would have to be something he could do incognito, a place that didn't ask too many questions that he couldn't answer and didn't have him out in public places. It proved more difficult than he imagined so he had to mostly stick with odd jobs here and there, things that could be accomplished within a day, two at the most.

Eventually, he happened upon the current job: security, or bodyguard to be exact. He had the strength for it, that was obvious enough, and it was a job that didn't ask too many questions beyond that. He came in, he watched the door, he roughed up punks, and he left. At the moment he was working with one other guy, but neither of them had any interest in conversation and they both seemed equally relieved by that fact. It at least gave him plenty of thinking and research time, learning what he could about what had happened while he was inactive, such as if his namesake was still around and just as troublesome, turns out he was. Though, as he was considering how annoying that was, beyond what needed to be done for Itara, the echidna really wasn't all that troublesome to him anymore. He no longer worked for Eggman, who was their main interest, and he had been inactive for so long he doubted they even considered him as a threat anymore. It was a slight insult that he had gone to such waste and been forgotten, but it was better for him now that he _was_ finally active again.

When it was finally time for him to leave for the day, he gave a short wave to his replacement and headed down the long, empty street that would take him home. He could easily run and get home within a matter of minutes, considering the hotel was quite a distance from the house, but he found the long walk home both informative and time-consuming, both of which kept him entertained. Since being freed from Robotnik and Itara leaving he found it increasingly difficult to figure out what to do for most of the day. He could only spend so much time trying to find and repair his broken and destroyed files, especially when the small laptop he was working with didn't have the power needed for most of his repairs. Beyond repairs, he wasn't sure what else he even should do, he wasn't used to not having specific orders. So the best he could think to do was to studying whoever and whatever was around him while making sure he had a fool-proof plan to distract Metal when the time came around for their fight.

During the walk home it was rare to see more than a small handful of people out on the streets and today was no exception. There was a woman with a couple bags of groceries, a couple clearly on their way out to a date, a small group of men leaning against a wall, having a smoke and a chat. Nothing particularly new, nothing all that interesting, but RK couldn't help but notice the not-so-subtle glances or when someone would cross the street to avoid walking past him. Being a Robotnik robot, people fearing him was nothing new at all, but there was something unsettling about it when no one knew he was a former creation of Robotnik. None of these people avoiding walking near him knew him before and they certainly didn't know him now… why did they look so weary about him? Perhaps it was the hook and claws, or maybe it was his size… he was a good bit larger, height and build-wise, than most others, excluding the humans. Though he did tower over the smaller of the humans, their youngest, in the same way he towered over the young mobians. He was taller than Itara in any of her forms, sometimes quite a bit, but had previously thought that it was just her. It wasn't until he started going out looking for jobs that he realized just how much larger he was than most.

Making a small grunt, he folded his arms behind his back while deciding to watch the sunset as he walked. It was always interesting to see all the colors it produced and how everyone's attitudes seemed to change as soon as the bright orange started stretching out over the sky. Along the way, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention enough to make him stop and look back to check it. Peering in through the small shop window, he noticed a little orange and white stuffed fox sitting awkwardly on a shelf, mostly by itself, and collecting a decent amount of dust. There was a large red 'sale' tag wrapped around it's thin leg, telling RK the owners were trying to get rid of the clearly very old doll, considering the store, itself, didn't seem to be having a sale of any kind. In fact, as far as he could see from outside, the fox doll was the only thing with a red sale tag attached to it. What had caught his attention, however, was that he thought he recognized the doll. He couldn't place why, but there was something in his systems telling him he knew the doll… or perhaps just knew of it… or maybe it just reminded him of someone.

It did look a bit like Sonic's friend, Tails, he supposed, perhaps that's what it was. It was the same orange and white with two tails, but had beady little black eyes and a strange red gem hanging from its head. It was a bit unnerving to watch for too long, however, even for him, so he could see why the shopkeepers were having a hard time getting rid of it. He couldn't imagine any organic child wanting such a doll unless they had particularly creepy tastes. Most children, he had learned, preferred fluffy cute things or figures they could abuse without destroying too quickly. Anything considered 'scary' or 'creepy' were usually kept as far away from children as the parents could possibly manage.

Shaking his head, he turned back towards the street and continued down it towards home. The rest of the way home he was distracted by the thought of the doll, considering it's possible origin and why it had struck him with such interest. He knew it had to be in a file somewhere, most likely another lost or corrupted file but there must have been enough of it remaining to cause him to recognize the doll at all. That said, he doubted it was just a normal doll modelled after Tails if he had an actual file on it.

He was also considering what kind of child would play with a doll like that, as he'd learned that children had an interest in dolls for the first few years of their lives. He often saw parents and their small children walking around and the youngest ones often had a small doll hanging from their hands or wrapped up in their arms. He had the chance to ask about it once, during a simple house job, and the mother explained that she had bought a stuffed lion for her son and he barely put it down since. According to her, it was common for children to have toys such as stuffed animals and dolls growing up, making him wonder if Itara had any such things. She was no normal child by any definition, but she still showed child-like attributes on occasion. But he had never seen her with any kind of toy. Did she want one? Did she even think to have one? He couldn't imagine it had occurred to her, she was far too interested in what needed to be done with him or her father.

He just couldn't help the idea that she might like some sort of doll when she finally came back.

Perhaps he should get her one. He could easily hold onto it until she returned to this timeline, it was only a matter of finding one she would like… or at least potentially like.

Metal grunted in annoyance, listening to the rest of his orders before nodding and turning around to head out of the large, grey room. The large screen blinked behind him, reflecting off the repaired robot and casting a long shadow in front of him along with a longer, wider shadow of the man in front of the screen.

"And Metal?"

He stops at the door and glances back over his shoulder, "Yes?"

"Remember, I'll be watching," the man threatens without turning away from the computer screen and control board in front of him, his arms crossed comfortably behind his back, his eyes narrowing under the blue, circular glasses.

"Of course…" Metal growls out, turning back around to leave the room, leaving the robust man in red alone to continue his work. The halls outside the room were long and just as grey, lined with vines of wires and dimmed lights, giving the entire area a somber, heavy aura. The blue robot stormed angrily down the halls, ignoring any other, lesser robots along the way as he headed to the first destination. He was being sent on an information retrieval mission… again… but was given permission to make a stop along the way to see about pieces to repair his leg, which he had damaged during a training session yesterday. Since his return, Robotnik had not only altered and strengthened his loyalty program to avoid any further attempts to free himself, but forced him to get specific permissions before even repairing himself. Robotnik was taking no chances with a potential repeat of him going rogue.

Looking down, he was glad his pants covered the dented leg for the time being, but he once again caught sight of the long, sharp crack down his right arm that Robotnik refused to let him repair. Hissing in anger, he looks up and down the hall again, cursing everything for his failure. He cursed the blue hedgehog and his friends, he cursed Robotnik for dragging him back, and he cursed the one robot who had escaped the vile man without getting destroyed, yet has made no attempt to help him. He knew the red robot had gotten free, after the base was destroyed, he had sensed the other robot's systems turn on just long enough for him to check his status before his communications system was disconnected. He was out and in hiding… and that infuriated Metal.

He would pay everyone back for all the misfortune they've caused him over the years, he would find a way to free himself again, and he would destroy them all and make them all suffer… and he would do it right this time! There would be no failure next time!


	7. Chapter 7 - Testing

_Sensors indicate high temperature levels._

 _Increase cooling system output._

There were few times Metal was glad to go out on yet another mission from Robotnik, no matter how many times the man rewired his loyalty programming, but this particular mission he would take with stride. While the desert heat was enough to melt his circuits without a proper cooling system and the sand would take hours to fully clean out once he returned to the base, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to be far away from his 'master' for several hours, and everyone else, for that matter. Retrieval missions weren't what he was built for and he hated when Robotnik didn't at least use him for his intended purposes, but ever since he returned to the doctor's 'care' he took every opportunity to escape the incessant gloating and stupidity. Robotnik may have had enough brains to somehow create the brilliant machine that was Metal Sonic, but the man was a failure in every other aspect of his life and nothing drove Metal more insane than being forced to carry out such a man's wishes.

He was sure the doctor's latest plans would fair no better than the previous ones, but the item he was being sent to retrieve this time had far more potential than ever before. From the information Robotnik chose to share, the item in question was something called the 'Scepter of Darkness' and had been hidden for decades after a terrible accident in the Soleanna labs concerning their Sun God, Solaris. Robotnik refused to relay what exactly was –in- said scepter or what exactly had happened, but after looking into it, himself, Metal was convinced it had something to do with a time machine the doctor had been working on lately. He found the concept a bit ridiculous, if not impossible, but perhaps whatever force was inside the scepter would give the doctor some final element to make the machine work properly.

Honestly, at this point, he no longer cared.

The entire scheme could blow up in Robotnik's face and Metal would be no more or less pleased than if it all went off without a hitch. Either way he would forever be stuck in Robotnik's grasp and either way he would be miserable, unless the doctor was _killed_ by some outside force or the entire world was just destroyed, he would never see true freedom from the fool.

Left alone to his thoughts, Metal reached the location on his maps far sooner than he had expected and almost ran right past it until the GPS started blinking in the corner of his eye, causing him to slow down and soon enough come to a halt in front of… nothing. There was nothing, nothing but a vast wasteland of sand. Giving a disgruntled sigh, Metal began scanning the area for any potential underground buildings or energy signs that may have just been buried over the years. Sure enough, after a just a few seconds, his scanners showed signs of energy coming from far beneath the sand and Metal debated for just a moment on how to go about digging through the sand for his goal. From what the scanners showed, there was a hollowed out area around the energy readings… so there was a building down there. Or at least the remains of some kind of room. Whatever it was, it was a good couple hundred or so feet from the surface and he assumed most of the in-between was going to be sand.

Having made a decision, Metal checked the direction of the wind before beginning to walk in a large circle, going with the wind as much as possible, around the general area of the buried room. Making calculations along the way, he got the full diameter marked out before picking up speed, slowly at first but quickly enough sped up until the sand inside his circle began lifting up off the ground. Within a matter of seconds, the robot had a large-scale dust devil built up, grabbing and tossing the sand about and kept it in place until he had displaced enough of the sand that the outer walls of the room were less than 10 feet away. At this depth, he decided he was close enough that a fizzling out whirlwind could move enough on its own while a well-placed laser shot could finish the job. He slowed himself enough that the whirlwind would start dying down before he made a full stop, then checked the exact spot for the energy reading before shifting his hand to his laser and blasting a large enough hole in the ceiling for him to jump down through.

Landing with an echoed _thud_ , he only had to glance around the dark, clearly dated bunker before spotting the glowing purple scepter on the further wall. The soft purple glow was enough to light the room without need for night vision but the blackish mist that seeped around the scepter cast out eerie shadows wherever the glow touched, especially so on the table it seemed to float just above. As Metal inspected the room and scanned for any potential traps, the scepter almost seemed to acknowledge his sudden, and possibly awaited, presence as the glow wavered and the mist reached and wormed out further and then drew back in. Above, the sand still whipped and flew about, pieces of long forgotten architecture falling in on the exposed ceiling with a heavy clang that rung out in the closed off room. Metal found himself wondering how any of this had come to be, but had no time to stop and study as he knew that, once the whirlwind outside died down, the sand would once again start to settle and fill this room up through the new opening. There was already a small pile of sand building up from above.

Sensing no further danger from the room, no traps and no other life forms beyond the strong power coming from the scepter, he cautiously but quickly walked over and reached out for the scepter, having changed his hand back. The glow and mist danced about, almost excitedly, as he did, causing him to hesitate but a moment before grabbing the scepter by the middle and turning back towards the opening. Reaching the large hole in the ceiling and small trail of light, Metal jumped back up before powering the boosters in his shoes and flying up out of the deep crater he'd created. He had found what he was sent for, now it was time to return and let whatever may come from Robotnik gaining this accursed item, though he still wondered how it came to be buried so deep in the sands, who had put it there, and what sort of powerful presence was locked up inside it, in the first place. He would have to do more digging on the subject once he returned.

* * *

Flipping up over the incoming attack, his arm sparking wildly blue as it reached back around, Metal lightly tapped the other robot, sending the training robot into spastic convulsions before it finally crashed heavily to the ground. Metal glanced back and down at the pile of sparking steel, his mouth pulling to the side in complete lack of amusement. New upgrades or not, giving him such an easy training opponent was insulting, to the say the least.

"If you do not give me a proper challenge, how am I to know the extent of my new abilities?" he questioned, glaring towards the thick glass window far above him on the right wall of the large training room. "I should be testing my new abilities on Sonic, not useless throwaways," he growled to himself, looking back down as his fist curled.

Without much of an answer, the lower walls behind him opened to reveal a much larger, but also bulkier opponent for Metal to take down, followed by a horde of bug-sized, clearly much faster robots to swarm him. If this was the doctor's idea of a proper challenge, Metal was even more insulted than he had been previously. As the blue sparking around his arm began again, Metal waited, letting the swarm draw close before taking advantage of the metal-cased room and slamming his electrified hand on a wall, letting the electricity fly free throughout the room, snapping and catching everything within its reach, zapping through and electrifying all the various, tiny robots while simultaneously putting a sudden, jolting halt to the much larger robot. Consequently, once the electricity made its way through all the robots in the room, a sudden hum buzzed throughout the entire facility as the wave caused a short in the building's power. Waiting until he was safe to do so, Metal stands back up, listening to the suddenly silent area. The walls around the training room were thick enough to contain powerful blasts of energy during sessions, easily accomplishing a soundproof arena, but it was also heavily decorated with various robotics, and machines. Smaller attacks with his shorted circuitry didn't normally go further than the specific robot he was attacking, but with the recent upgrades he not only had a stronger system, but he could control the currents much better. They had yet to find a way to fully repair the shorts, so he had instead found ways of using it… this was more a test of its power than an accidental short.

However, he knew there'd be hell to pay for this stunt from Robotnik, so he took his time leaving the dark, silent room, lit only by his glowing, red eyes, manually sliding the doors open, and making his way through the pitch black, echoing hallways to where he knew the doctor would be raging about, trying to get everything back online. The silence was serene in a way, besides the faint, wavering hum of his own robotics trying to recover from this level of blast, it wasn't often the base was so quiet… or dark. He could, of course, see just fine with night vision, but the general effect was still there. It set for a fine mood. A perfect killing mood.

Upon finally reaching the control room, Robotnik was, as he expected, raging about at the still-functional smaller robots to get everything fixed and turned back on, though wasted no time sending Metal a hateful glare the moment he walked into the room. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he roared at the uncannily calm robot as he strolled over.

"Whatever do you mean? I was simply training… it's no fault of mine not even your full base can control my power," Metal sneered, his bright red eyes glowing with the same level of hatred that he was equally facing down.

"You did that on purpose! Fix it! Fix it right now!" Robotnik all but screamed, looking to Metal more like a child throwing a tantrum than anyone worthy of giving _him_ orders. But he had no choice but to obey and simply turned around to go do so. "And once you get that fixed, consider your training session over… I think I have much better work for you the rest of the day." Metal glowered at the empty hall in front of him, expecting this new mission to be of the particularly boring and remedial persuasion, but it would be nothing new and unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it. His loyalty program was far too strong anymore, Robotnik made doubly sure of that nowadays.

It took just a few minutes, with his added assistance, to get the base back up and running and most of the circuitry repaired. Luckily, all he did was short most of it out and a quick flip of a few switches got it back online, though the training room, itself, would take a bit more work to repair. But that no longer concerned him as, just as Robotnik had said, his training session for the day was over, anyway. Returning to the control room, Metal glanced around the now lit room with all its beeping and humming, noticing that the large computer up front was going through a reboot, and tread silently over to the doctor in his large chair. Neither of them said a word for a couple minutes, Metal seeing no point and the doctor contemplating his next sentence carefully.

"As you're fully aware, I've been working on a time travel machine with little success," he finally stated, not turning around to face the robot just yet, "that said, with the scepter in my possession all I need to do now is figure out how to harness it's power and feed it into the machine. To do so, I plan to first draw out a small portion of the power it holds and put it into my own vessel so I can more easily test how and to what it reacts to certain things. I want you to oversee the process, make sure everything goes over smoothly and make sure the vessel I've chosen can handle it. First we need to get a small portion of the power extracted, however, and that's what I want you working on immediately. You're to drop all other assignments and put all your focus on this task. Am I clear?"

"…Crystal," Metal responded rather shortly, not all that interested in anything involving this scepter but, once again, had no choice in the matter. Moving all other tasks he had planned further off on his to do list, not dropping them completely, however, he adds the new mission front and center. "Anything else?"

"No, you may go. I want that power, Metal, and I want it soon," Robotnik threatened, just barely glancing over his shoulder at the glaring robot, but then turned back towards his large computer as it had finally finished rebooting. Giving a small grunt of a response, Metal turned, once again, and left the control room to make his way down into the labs where the scepter and vessel were being kept. He had barely heard further mention of the scepter since he brought it back, but knew it was only a matter of time before he would become involved with it again.

It was a fairly long walk down to the labs, seeing as they were the furthest underground, for various reasons, but Metal made decently quick work of the long, winding corridors. Reaching the large, thick, steel doors to the labs, he pressed the button to begin the system scan that would either allow or restrict access to the different robots of the base, waiting for the doors to slowly slide back for him, then walking into the large, yet filled room. It was the same dusky grey atmosphere as the rest of the base, but filled with much more stationary machinery as well as several thick electrical cords that ran across the ceiling and a large, sectioned off room for experiments that may cause blast-back. Inside the sectioned off room, for now, was the scepter, floating almost menacingly behind the thick glass and atop a steel table, a thinner glass cover over the scepter, itself.

Off to the side of the main room was the only other living, breathing soul in the entire base, a young hedgehog girl in a stasis capsule. Metal eyed her as he walked back towards the scepter, studying her reddish brown fur and the lines of teal going down her spines. It wasn't the first time he had seen the girl, as he had been the one to kidnap her after Robotnik decided on a fitting vessel, but this was the most quiet he had ever seen her. He had watched and waited to learn her schedules before actually carrying out the plan and had learned much more about her in that time. She was from a fairly high class family, making Metal question how wise it'd actually be to kidnap a girl like that, especially considering how rarely she was ever alone. When she wasn't with her father, clearly the one their riches came from, she was with a fox and at all times had another, blue and black, hedgehog with her. It took him weeks to find an opening to take the very chatty, very proud, and very smart young girl. To see her now, in a perpetual slumber in one of Robotnik's capsules was almost off-putting to the robot. The young girl had potential that he knew would go unused under Robotnik's care, nothing but a vessel for more pointless schemes.

Scoffing, he turned his attention back to the scepter, itself, studying it, instead. He supposed now was the opportune time to learn more about what was even in it and how it had come to be trapped like that, since he would now be overseeing it's use. At least it was an opportunity to learn and perhaps there would be something useful in it that could improve upon his powers and abilities. Walking up to the large computer on one side to go over the files on it so far, as well as Robotnik's current plans to extract the power, he started putting together several different ideas and plans built upon the information he received. It wouldn't be an easy task, he could tell this much already, especially considering how little information there actually was on the scepter, but it was his task now and he would carry it out to the best of his abilities… as he was told.


	8. Chapter 8 - Breakthrough

"What do you mean it won't work?!" Robotnik growled impatiently, looking over the scepter through the heavy glass, glaring it down, "why not?!"

"I mean it is not feasibly plausible to use an electric blast to pull power out of the scepter," Metal answered just as impatiently as the doctor, tapping his foot now, "whatever this power is, it doesn't want to be separated and simple electric shocks aren't going to make it any more likely to do so."

The two glared each other down for a moment, both equally annoyed at the lack of progress they'd been making on extracting power from the scepter. It had been two months since Metal was put on the job of overseeing the extraction and making sure the vessel for the power was able to handle it, but they had yet to make any sort of headway with getting the power out to begin with and it was clearly putting both Metal and Robotnik even more on each other's nerves than ever before.

"Well, what about using chaos emeralds?"

"We've tried that, it only threatens to break the scepter and release –all- of the energy instead of just a small portion."

"What if we just open it a little and close it really quickly?"

Metal gave the doctor one of the most incredulous looks a robot could even manage, clearly amazed at how stupid that suggestion even was and having no answer beyond just calling him a complete idiot. To the point that resisting doing so was almost _physically_ causing him pain.

"Look, this isn't going to be a simple answer and I'm not going to get anywhere with you constantly bothering me," Metal finally stated, "just let me work and I'll figure it out, I think I might have an idea but I don't know the details yet and I can't figure them out if I'm squabbling with you over things we've –already- tried!"

Robotnik gave the robot an indignant look before scoffing and turning on his heels to storm off, "fine! But figure it out already, we're wasting time!"

"Yeah, we…," Metal growled, turning back towards the computer to run a few more tests on his potential idea. Even he was running out of ideas on how to accomplish this extraction and it was getting on his nerves, he should be able to figure this out! He was brilliant, after all! Glaring over at the scepter, he growled at it out loud before shoving his chair away to stand up and march into the room so he could properly stare the offending item down. Moving the glass aside, he reached over and picked the scepter up, turning it over a few times in his hand as he walked out of the cornered off room and to one of the larger machines, setting it inside it and closing the solid iron door. Making sure the cable between the machine and the capsule was properly connected, he went back to the computer to start a new process.

The machine whirred to life soon enough, sending jolts and high bursts of energy through the scepter, the direction and flow being controlled by Metal through the computer. Electric shocks hadn't worked, but he was hoping energy might work to overflow the scepter just enough that some of the trapped power might seep out if he kept a close control over the wavering of power instead of just letting it zap through. He had even gone to the trouble of hunting a Chaos Emerald down for this specific purpose, though would, of course, have other uses for it if this didn't work out. The machine sparked and whirred about, sending a flux of power through the scepter inside its chambers, but just as with many other experiments, this one soon turned into a violent lash out from the scepter, itself, and Metal had to quickly shut the machine down before it exploded from the tripled power levels.

Sighing heavily, Metal punched the wall beside him, leaving a heavy dent in his fury, growling under his breath and ranting about the scepter to himself. "I _will_ overcome you, scepter! You _will_ bow to my whim sooner or later!" he raged out, glaring towards the machine's doors, knowing the scepter now sat idle, taunting him and his efforts, "you will not make a fool of me, whatever you are!" And he would do everything in his abilities to make that a true statement, no matter how long he had to sit in that room and no matter what he had to hunt down to make it so.

RK stared through the window, arms crossed and finger tapping anxiously on the opposite arm. He had the day off and during a casual stroll around the normal streets, he had finally made a decision about buying a doll for Itara. Now he just had to carry this plan out but was having more of a problem than he had ever expected. He had walked past the store twice now, stared the doll down, grumbled, and walked away without going inside, now he was back for a third time and wondering, once again, how to even go about this.

The decision, itself, was hard enough to make considering everything he had to take into consideration before making it. There was the question of whether Itara would need or even want a doll in the first place, but after studying other children long enough he had decided that yes, she did need one, even if she didn't want one. But then there was the matter of what kind of doll Itara would like, considering she wasn't exactly a normal child, and even normal children differed greatly from one another. After much debate, he had finally decided it would be the creepy little doll he had spotted on his way home awhile back. This, however, lead to his final problem… how did he go about buying this doll?

He was no stranger to shopping at this point; he had to do a bit here and there to keep up maintenance and small upgrades since Itara left. But those were robotic parts… for a robot, which he was… this was a child's toy. He wasn't a child. Would he get more strange looks? Would it raise suspicion? Finally, sighing heavily, he stood up straight and marched right into the shop and right over to the doll, reaching up to grab it and march it over to the counter, without a word. The shopkeeper, who was sitting comfortably behind the counter on a plush looking stool, looked up at the stern-looking pirate-man with a much softer expression than RK ever imagined getting, "well, finally decided to come in, did you?"

RK was left a bit shocked by the reaction and took a moment to respond, but eventually managed a nod, "Yes… I had many decisions to make before coming to the conclusion of what must be done."

The shopkeeper, a rather elderly fox, simply nodded and started ringing the doll up, "got a little girl that's hard to shop for?"

"Very." Once again, the shopkeeper just nodded and reached under his counter to pull out a small box filled with colorful ribbons, holding it out towards RK.

"That doll's a bit odd, I have to admit, won't sell for the life of him… your little girl must have strange tastes to decide she wants that one. But tell you what, we'll get him all dressed up nice for her, huh? What's her favorite color, then?"

"She certainly isn't a normal child and I… don't actually know what her favorite color is…," RK confessed, making a slight face that he didn't know that information. Was that something he should know about her? Perhaps he would have to ask her about it once she got back, he logged it away for later just in case. "She's away at the moment, though, and I thought she would like it when she comes back, is all," he added, thinking it might help the situation. He wasn't sure about any of this, really. The shopkeeper seemed to understand much as, once again, he nodded understandingly.

"Alright, let's use one that matches, hm? How about a pretty white ribbon?" the he asked, waiting for an unsure nod from the big red robot before pulling a lacy white ribbon out of the box and tying it nicely around the fox doll's neck. He then checked the doll over to make sure everything was in order, pulled a small cloth out to shine the red jewel up, then placed it in a big antiques bag, "well, that should about do it and at the sale price that little doll comes out to about… 2 rings."

RK stared at the man strangely for a moment, "is… is that all? Really?" Maybe it's just because he didn't buy dolls, but that just seemed so very cheap. But again, the shopkeeper nodded to confirm, that was, indeed, all, so RK paid the man and took the bag with the doll, "are you sure?"

Laughing, the shopkeeper waved him off, "I am absolutely sure, just make sure that little girl of yours has the best coming home gift you can possibly manage… and come back sometime once she gets home, I'd love to see her just once." It was RK's turn to nod, this time, as he did so and turned to leave the shop, looking down at the doll through the opening in the bag for just a moment before finally heading back to his empty living quarters. He had a feeling this would make him just that much more anxious for Itara's return, so he could give her the gift and see how she felt about it… and to ask her favorite color, while he was at it.

Metal was ready to smash everything in the room to bits and pieces. He had failed far more than he would ever admit with this entire task and it was grating heavily on whatever nerves he had, to the point that he had to request permission to go out for a very long run to cool his systems down enough and clear some of the clutter in his head out. There was still so much left to do and they still couldn't even figure the first part of this entire ordeal out and not only was time running out, but so were his ideas and Robotnik had nothing useful to add whatsoever.

For once he had no planned destination during his run but, instead, just took off in the first direction that looked decent for a long stretch. Along the way, being away from Robotnik and his consistent interruptions, he had a chance to reorganize the plethora of information that had gathered up over the past few months into far more manageable sectors. He took all the failed experiments and went over every aspect, taking into consideration what failed outright and what seemed to have gotten some sort of response, then took a further look into what got a response and what kind of response it got. Finally, he took into consideration what they had in common and how they differed from each other before he went about organizing all the information he had received about the power in the scepter and made a coherent, detailed description to apply to all the reactions.

Eventually, with everything sorted out, it hit him what needed to be done to make this mission a success. Deciding he would get a few more miles out of his run, he started creating a new, revised plan so he could figure out the details now instead of while at the base. After a couple more miles, he made a wide round-about to turn back the other way and head back to the base, now knowing what needed to be done and wanted to get to it right away to find out if he was right not. He was sure he was right this time, it was the only logical conclusion!

Metal wasted no time upon reaching the base, going right back to the lab without a single word to Robotnik about his elation, and got right to work setting up for the new experiment. Firstly, he had to get the scepter back in the large, energy-storing machine and set it up to transfer energy from the scepter to the girl again. Once that was done and some precautions were taken, Metal then moved to the capsule, itself, and, with no hesitation whatsoever, began waking the sleeping girl. Live body, that's what the power wanted, it wanted a fully alive, breathing body to transfer into, not an unconscious, unaware, sleeping one. He knew Robotnok probably wouldn't be all too happy about waking the girl already, but if this was what the ultimate goal was, anyway, then he was sure this was how it needed to be done. Getting the girl's life signatures up, he went back to the computer and began the process again. He wouldn't fail for sure this time! He had to succeed this time!

As the process began again and the machines whirred up and the girl's increased heartrate started beeping away on the screen, a loud, blaring alarm rung throughout the base. Growling viciously, Metal slammed a fist on the keyboard, glaring almost wildly towards the door, knowing he would be called to whatever was going on as soon as he heard the word 'intruder' follow the alarm. Looking towards the girl and making sure she wasn't going anywhere, then towards the scepter to make sure it wasn't, either, he gets up and runs out of the room and down the long hallways to find out who would dare interrupt him at the edge of a breakthrough, following the sounds of chaos breaking out.

It didn't take him long to find the source of the interruption and grew all the angrier at the reveal. Making her way through the group of following robots was Rouge the Bat, no matter what she was after here he wasn't going to have any of it. Not now. As soon as she spotted him, however, her expression changed far more than he was comfortable with, as it had changed to one of recognition, one you might turn to a friend. She was no friend of his. He would make this clear soon enough. Charging his circuitry up again, he took off after her, as well, changing her expression quickly enough as she just barely dodged to the side of his attack. "Aw, c'mon, Metal, don't be like that now."

"Don't talk to me so familiarly," Metal growled, sending her flying across the room with one swift kick, following quickly after her only to be stopped by a sudden explosion from down the hall in the direction of the labs. Scoffing angrily again, he glared back at Rouge before turning to run back down the hall and make sure his experiment wasn't interrupted. It was far more important than anything Rouge could possibly manage and he needed to make sure nothing disturbed it. His worst fears were realized, however, as it had been the doors to the lab that had exploded and not only was Shadow standing there with the scepter in hand in the room… but the girl was gone. Shadow wasted no more time with words than Metal did, as the robot's hand began sparking wildly, but he just barely missed the black hedgehog before he teleported himself off.

NO! THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING AGAIN! JUST AS HE'D FIGURED IT OUT… THEY HAD TO COME AND RUIN IT ALL! WHY?!

 **WHY?!**

Without even waiting for further instruction from Robotnik, absolutely enraged by this point, Metal took off out of the base, taking the quickest route and making sure Rouge was either gone or being taken care of. Just as he'd expected, she had escaped with Shadow… but he would track them down. He wouldn't lose that scepter after all this trouble now! Shadow was fast, but he was still faster, he could catch up to them… and he'd do whatever it took to get that scepter back. His efforts wouldn't be wasted!

Metal reached the outside soon enough and checked which direction Shadow and Rouge were trying to escape in, only taking a moment to do so, and quickly took off, nearing full speed, to reach them before they could get far while planning exactly what he would do to each of them once he caught them. What he couldn't plan for, however, was the sudden interference that darted up and stopped him in his tracks, sending him crashing to the ground and sliding back several feet. He didn't have time for this! Who dared get in his way yet again?!

Growling, enraged, furious, so very near a breaking point, he pulled himself to his feet to face his sudden attacker, standing in confused rage for a moment as he processed what he was looking at. It took him quite a few, long moments, but finally it dawned on him who he was glaring down.

"RK?"


	9. Chapter 9 - First Battle

Electricity and metal sparked as it clashed, the smell of burnt fur quickly filled the air of the immediate area, columns collapsed to dust under their weight, but nothing seemed to stop the two battling robots. A sparking blue fist connected with a black shirt, sending the red mock-echidna barreling several feet, kicking up enough dust to cause screens to blackout. There was only a moment of respite, however, as, with a heavy, crushing _thud_ , the echidna was back on top of the robotic hedgehog. The weight of the former was enough to nearly crush the arm of the latter, but neither that nor the now exposed, crackling wires were enough to put a stop to the brutal back-and-forth.

Metal Sonic had tried to leave RK behind at first, still having his goal set on Shadow and the scepter, but once it became clear that the previously missing robot had no intent to let him pass and once Robotnik flew by overhead to chase after Shadow, himself, Metal quickly focused his attention on the other. There were few words exchanged between them, enough information was gained from the ones they chose that more was unnecessary, and the rest was left to the battle, itself. Both danced around each other cautiously at first, neither quite sure of the potential changes since RK's disappearance and Metal's upgrades, but once they had enough of a handle on the other's abilities, the fighting turned rapid and heavy. It became clear to Metal, after a few pulled punches from his opponent, that RK wasn't looking to end the fight as quickly as he was, though. This made him curious as to the true objective behind RK's attack and the blue robotic took to analyzing the potential answers.

After a particularly nasty-sounding _crack_ , caused by RK landing directly on him again, Metal took the moment he was pinned to question the other about it. "You're working for someone new, aren't you?" he snapped, almost sounding insulted by the idea.

RK didn't answer, but instead focused on keeping Metal's sparking hand away from him as much as possible. He had been caught by that only a couple times during the fight, but he learned quickly why Itara had warned him so dramatically about it. Metal didn't seem to take the silence well, however, as the angry hedgehog shot him off and jumped, spinning after him with enough speed and momentum to get above him and plant a well-aimed, rocket-boosted foot on the robotic echidna's middle, sending him crashing back down to the ground. The thud echoed as Metal then landed on him, instead, kneeling, with a pointed, sparking hand aimed at his opponent's chest. The force of the impact was enough to send RK's already fritzing systems into a brief emergency cooldown mode, giving him no other option but to yield to Metal's threats until his systems could come back online enough for him to continue the fight.

"Answer me! Are you working with Shadow?! Convenient how, just as I'm getting what I need out of that scepter, he and Rouge manage to break in and steal it, and just as I'm about to catch them, YOU show up for the first time in YEARS and refuse to let me go after them! Is that where you've been this entire time?!"

RK studied the absolutely enraged robot gripping at his now very torn black shirt before finally answering, "I'm not."

"Then why?! What is your objective?!"

Metal's red eyes were glowing furiously as he spoke, his grip tightening until his nails ripped right through the shirt in his grip, creating small holes in the collar, his right sparking violently with a bright, neon blue that threatened to shut down what remained of RK's systems. RK had never known Metal to be so furious, but then again, when he was still actually active, neither of them had gained emotion-chips yet, so they weren't capable of that. After the emotion chips were installed, RK still spent most of his time offline, only meeting with Metal once in a while to test the other's upgrades. He had, of course, learned of Metal's attempt to break free of Robotnik on his own, and it made sense that the robot would grow angry being dragged back into the Doctor's grasp after that. But it still took him slightly off-guard, seeing just how furious the other robot had grown over the years apart.

"I can't tell you… but I'm not working for Shadow," RK finally explained, almost catching a sign of relief from the other robot. Why did this matter so much to him?

"Then let me ask you this," Metal continues, his voice calming ever-so-slightly as his grip loses, as well, "why didn't you free me… like I freed you?"

RK was taken slightly aback by this, taking a moment to process this question. The day the base was destroyed and he was both awoken and nearly destroyed in the burning base, he had been unaware of who it actually was that had turned him back online. He had his assumptions that it might have been Metal, but he could never be sure. There was no point looking into it and there was no way to ask, either. He had always had bigger things to focus on, anyway. But with this brought up now, studying Metal's question and his voice, RK wasn't sure how to respond. He hadn't considered the idea that he could have helped Metal break free from Robotnik, he only knew he had to fight him eventually.

"Metal, I-"

Before RK could find a way to respond, an explosion goes off in the distance where Shadow, Rouge, and the Doctor had headed off in, catching the attention of the battling robots for a brief moment. RK knew that was his sign that he needed to leave before Robotnik came back through, and, after a moment's hesitation, took Metal's distraction to throw him off and away, having finally gained control over his own systems finally, and stood. "I'm sorry, Metal, but I-"

"RK, your job is done, we need to leave now."

The robots turned towards the young girl's voice, RK nodding to Itara and Metal glaring at the strange-looking child, taking a moment to recognize the girl from the lab, the one he had been trying to put the scepter's powers into. He was growing tired of constant interruptions when he wanted answers.

"You?"

Itara turned to attention to Metal as RK made his way over to her. She didn't answer him, but gave him a slight grin before teleporting her and RK both out of the area as not long after doing so Robotnik made his way up and stopped to meet with Metal.

"Where did Robot-Knuckles go?! Did you let him escape again?!" Dr. Robotnik scolded, clearly fuming over the past couple hours' events.

"I did not _let_ him escape, but yes, he is gone now. What happened over there?" Metal Sonic growled out in response, also irritated with the recent events.

"Mephiles was released… let's go back to the base for now, there's nothing more we can do here."

Metal nods and both he and Robotnik head back to their base to rethink their plans of attack. There was still more they needed to get done in the next couple days if the larger plan was to still be a success, but the loss of the scepter was going to weigh heavily on both of their moods. As well as the sudden reappearance of RK and the strange girl who was now commanding him. Was that truly the girl from the lab? What happened in that explosion that started this entire ordeal? Is it possible the experiment was a success and Shadow and Rouge managed to break in at just the right time? Was RK going to make himself and enemy now that he reappeared? The potential only angered Metal further the more he thought about it.

* * *

RK had to let his systems readjust themselves once he and Itara reached wherever she had teleported them to, looking around to let them calibrate and scan the area, finding them in a field outside the main city of Soleanna. They remained silent for a moment, but she was the first to speak up. "How have you held up since I left? Have you been able to keep up on your repairs?"

"Yes, I've managed to repair a lot more than I expected to, though I still have a lot of systems offline," RK answered, looking over to her now, studying her form and noting that she was a couple inches taller than she had been. It made sense, he supposed. "Shouldn't you be with Mephiles at the moment?"

"I am."

"Listen, I need to know something, did you know that Metal was the one to turn me online before that base burnt down?"

"I did not. You've asked me this before, it's never concerned me so it's never been something I've looked into, I left that for you to find out. I suppose you have your answer now, then," Itara explained, looking over to him now, taking note of his battle damage and what would need repairing once they returned to their own base.

"Is there a way we can free Metal from Robotnik? Like I was?"

"I'm afraid not, trust me, that I have looked into. Our jobs would be much easier if we could have Metal Sonic on our side, but his loyalty-chip is far too advanced for either of us to reprogram. The only reason I was able to reprogram yours is because you were unused and broken, nearly beyond repair, it was outdated and damaged. Metal Sonic is used far more often and thus his programs are far more advanced, even before the recent case of going rogue. After his episode of trying to free himself, Robotnik installed an even more powerful program. There's nothing we can do for him, I'm afraid, without breaking him down completely."

"I see."

They remained silent for several minutes again, Itara in deep thought to stay connected with the happenings of her other selves, RK processing and sorting through as much as the new data as he could. He wanted to free Metal… but Itara was right, it would be nearly impossible at this point.

"Anyway, we need to repair your damage from today," Itara piped up suddenly, "I've used too much energy today as is, travelling back to this timeline and such, you're going to need to get us home." RK nodded and reached over to pick the still small child up to run them back home, having gotten a lock on their location and pulled up the directions home. It was a long distance, but he was still in decent enough condition that he could get them there no problems… as long as they didn't run into any problems along the way.

* * *

"What is this?" Itara questioned, turning the strange looking doll over in her hands, staring it down and studying its strange energy. She had seen several dolls in her time amongst the mortals now, but she had never seen one with such a low, malevolent energy… or any energy, really.

"It's... a doll," RK explained, only able to follow her movements with his eye again as he was hooked up to the laptop and several other machines that would repair him. "I just noticed that other children often carried such things around and realized you had nothing of the sort. That I'm aware of, of course."

"You realize I'm… not exactly a… normal child, right?" The question came off strangely awkwardly from the young time traveler, she seemed unsure of her own status.

"I'm aware… but you are still a child, from what I can tell, it makes sense for you to have something like this. Besides, I don't believe that is a normal doll, either. It seemed fitting for you."

There was silence in the room, besides the beeping of the computers, as RK studied Itara and Itara studied the strange doll. She wasn't sure how to take this and she hadn't realized it would confound her as much as it did. He was right, however, this was no normal doll. There was a soul of some kind in this doll, though it seemed to be lying dormant for the time being. It had energy, but apparently not enough to sustain itself. She wondered where this sort of thing came from.

"I guess I'll… call you Kipper, then," she stated aloud, still staring at the dead black eyes of the little two-tailed fox doll, "as I'm unaware of your true name and I feel as though you cannot tell me just yet." She moved to set the doll next to the laptop, propping it up against the wall and studying it still, wondering about it, but then turning towards RK, "um… thank you… I think. Perhaps it will… be of use."

"Perhaps," RK agreed, though had to resist the slight smirk at watching her talk with the doll. She may not be a normal child, but there was still a child in there somewhere, and he felt it important to make note of that. But now it was time to get serious about the upcoming events. They had a lot of work to do and it needed to be done correctly. Though he felt slightly at ease with a time-traveller at the reigns of the plans, it meant she knew what would come and how to prepare for it. Even now, sitting at her computer and occasionally glancing at 'Kipper', she was preparing information for Mephiles and typing out his own new directives.

At least he no longer needed to stay in hiding.


	10. Chapter 10 - Shutdown

"You've failed again! Perhaps you should be deactivated until I can properly reprogram you to actually carry out your missions."

"Listen, you over-sized _egg_ , I am perfectly capable of carrying my missions out when I'm not constantly interrupted during them!"

"And what, may I ask, interrupted you _this_ time that was so important?!"

"One of your many missing robots and my _success_ with the scepter."

A silence fell over the room, the tension still thick between the angry doctor and infuriated android, as Metal Sonic considered his next response carefully and Robotnik mentally questioned the insinuation behind this answer. It was the doctor who broke the silence first when he commanded slowly, "explain."

"Shadow and Rouge may have taken the scepter, but my experiment on it was a success before they did so, a piece of the scepter's power transferred into the Mobian child that went missing from the lab. It would also seem she's come into contact with Robot-Knuckles, for whatever reason he's under her command now. He was the one who interrupted me during my chase after Shadow. I'm unsure as to why, but I believe he was meant to distract me at the child's command. I have only theories as to how at the current time," Metal explained, his foot tapping angrily now as his arms crossed. He would have left the room long ago when the doctor decided blaming him for the incident was a wise decision, but as it happened, he was hooked up to the larger machine that repaired him. He could go nowhere until the process was finished.

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

Silence fell again, Robotnik going into deep thought about this, considering the potential of the situation. "You said you have theories, what are they?"

"They are vastly incomplete, but one is that the child I transferred the power into managed to master the abilities of time travel and has made use of Robot-Knuckles for her own ploys; The other is that, even apart from the rest of the source, the mind and abilities of the being in the scepter remain as one and is using Robot-Knuckles for whatever it's after. I don't know why him, nor do I know how, but those are my current theories for the situation. I'm assuming it has to do with the being, as you've informed me, breaking out of the scepter as it did, if my second theory is correct. If it's the first, however, the girl is a wild card. There's no telling what she's capable of or what she'll do."

Robotnik reached up and rubbed his chin at this information, debating on the next course of action, but eventually just turns and waves Metal off, "very well. When you are fully repaired come to the control room for your next mission, I have much to consider, clearly." With that, he was off and out of the android's sight. Metal wasn't sure what he had put at stake telling Robotnik about RK and the young girl, considering what he had done to free RK in the first place, but thanks to his reprogramming he was unable to keep it from him, either. RK and the girl would simply have to deal with whatever came of the situation themselves, it no longer concerned him. He need only get repaired now.

* * *

"I don't believe it was safe to tell Metal Sonic who you are."

Itara looked over from her notepad towards the strangely concerned robot sitting, adjusting his hook, across from her with an eyebrow rose, "it holds no bearing on the situation, I assure you. If it did I would not have told him. It's true that Robotnik is now interested in finding us both, now knowing that you are, in fact, still active, but it won't be relevant to either of us. Not in this timeline, anyway." She had gone back to scratching notes into her notepad now, her legs folded up against her with the notepad resting against them, Kipper sitting comfortably beside her on the cheap, burgundy couch.

"What do you mean?"

Itara looked over once again before unfolding her legs to sit up straight and explain, "I mean nothing Robotnik does in this timeline will amount to anything. He may capture my younger self that is roaming in this timeline now, but due to the incident in two days it will amount to nothing. I had no access to my powers for a very long time when I first broke out of the lab, so nothing he is currently planning will work. Besides, his focus is mostly on the princess right now, anyway, and it needs to stay there."

"Won't he just have Metal Sonic focus on us, then?"

"He will."

"So will that be my job to take care of again?"

Itara looked off to the side at this, scanning over the very run-down-looking _base_ they had going on here, taking notice of the changes RK had made while she was gone during those two years. Most of them were added furniture she didn't fully understand. They didn't know how pointless all of this would be soon. RK wouldn't for a very long time, either, thanks to what she actually needed him to do next.

Once she returned her gaze back to the robot, she began, "since I was first freed from the lab and acquired this body I have learned many things about the different timelines from my father. Just right now, the current timeline is branching off into at least 3 different pathways thanks to my father's presence, alone. Sonic and Shadow go missing for 200 years in one, they return and Sonic rescues the princess from Robotnik a first time and fails the second in another, and still another he returns again and succeeds both the second and first, all starting from a point very near this moment in time, all with very different results."

"I think this is a bit beyond my programming."

"I would imagine so. Which is why I'm explaining it. There's going to be an event two days from now where one of two things occur, either the princess dies in an explosion… or she lives. In this first path, she'll die, and many others along with her. The goal my father and I are working towards becomes impossible after this event, but it has to happen first for us to succeed later. My father can simply travel to where he needs to at this point with no need to wait and see it play out, I, on the other hand, had to watch it play out first because, as I told you earlier, it took some time for my powers to fully activate at first. This is where I need you."

"I'm not sure I follow 100%."

"In one timeline, E-123 Omega stores a chaos emerald in his hull and powers down to assist Shadow later on when he gets stuck 200 years in the future, giving him a way back to the current time. I need you to do something similar. I know it's asking quite a lot to deactivate yet again, and for 200 years no less, but my younger self is going to need your protection. There's something I must do for my father in the future and I'll die if I attempt it alone. I've already checked. But he needs my assistance and I can't say no. This is the only way to assure it gets done."

"What happens here in the meantime?"

"For the most part, nothing of consequence. Robotnik causes the death of the princess, which will release Iblis in the wrong form and cause the destruction of this world, sending it into a fiery inferno. Most won't survive, including Metal Sonic, but I'll make sure you will."

"Can you not just take me to the future, yourself, then? Wouldn't that be easier than having me wait the 200 years?"

"It would be, yes, but unfortunately I'm not powerful enough on my own to take anyone with me when I travel, not even a robot. I'm only a small sliver of my father's being; my powers and abilities are severely limited in comparison."

"I see."

Itara looked over towards Kipper once she was done speaking, picking the strange doll up to study it again curiously, "Kipper may benefit from this timeline, you should keep him with you. Many will die, Kipper will use that." She set him back down beside her again, keeping one eye on the doll, before switching her attention back to RK, "I will not know you yet, so I may be defensive, but you must insist on staying near me."

RK contemplated all this, running the information through the system and checking the odds of surviving that long on an already malfunctioning body. It didn't look great, but he had no choice but to trust the tiny child on this, considering she was the one who has already seen this future. "What will _you_ be doing in the meantime?"

"Assisting my father with the branching timelines… and finding the chaos emeralds," Itara responded, opening her mouth to add more but then closing it soon after, deciding against it. There were other plans she needed to pursue, as well, but she would keep those to herself for the time being. RK didn't know about her father's plan to rejoin with Iblis for the sole purpose of destroying everything and she planned to keep it that way, while she tried to convince him to do otherwise. There were certain things she'd grown attached to in this world and she didn't necessarily want to see it destroyed. She still felt the burning hatred of Iblis and the need for destruction, same as her father, it was always there in the back of her mind. For what the humans pulled after being entrusted with the flame, they deserved to suffer, but there were also reasons not to destroy everything, as well. It would be difficult to convince her father of that, though, and especially Iblis.

"Well… if this is the path you think is the best, then I suppose it's what I must do," RK finally responded, studying the small girl who had gotten lost in thought for a few moments. "What date should I program down for reactivation?"

"Exactly 200 years from today, the time of day will be 10:00 AM… you'll need time to find me." RK nodded and logged it into his systems as he started preparing them for the long-term shut down. "I'll make sure you're well-hidden to avoid damage or ruin from the coming fires and monsters that will spark. Once you're awakened, however, you'll need to be careful. They come to call the event 2 days from now the 'Day of Disaster'… and they won't be wrong."

"And you're sure my power will hold out long enough for me to reactivate that far in the future?"

"Yes."

Silence comes over the room as RK continued his internal preparations, checking all the systems he can leave off and make sure he still reactivated on his own at the planned time while Itara went about grabbing the laptop to do her own work on it. She was clearly distracted by other thoughts, however, and RK picked up on it relatively quickly once his scans were put into background functions.

"I'm assuming I won't be coming back to the present as Shadow will?"

Itara looked up again, scanning over the robot's features, her eyes sliding back down again afterwards, "I'm afraid not. Not in this timeline. But every time I return to the past or a choice is made, it creates a branching timeline. In this timeline your fate is to wait the 200 years, and even if I could bring others with me through time, your body will become irreparable by that point. However, this will be unnecessary in the resulting branch and you'll remain active in the present. But I do mean it when I say to keep Kipper with you… if you can get him to stay. He'll be of use."

Both the robot and the young girl look over towards the motionless doll sitting propped up against the back of the couch, staring off into space with his black button eyes. RK still got strange readings from the doll, but Itara seemed to have taken rather nicely to it and he was glad he bought it for her. Itara's gaze is the first to leave the doll as she leans back against the couch, stretching out, her ears flicking about almost anxiously.

"So… what did you do while you waited for today?"

RK's single eye moved from the doll to the small child, who had moved into an almost frog-like position in her spot on the couch, staring curiously at him. If not for the flat, glossed over stare, her wide, colorful eyes could almost be what others might consider adorable. RK was fond of them, at the very least, he enjoyed watching the ever-fluctuating dance between the purple and green. It was so rare, he'd noticed, to see eyes like that.

"I researched the best way to find parts for repair and the best suggestion I could find was a job, so I found one that required as little attention as possible to stay under Robotnik's radar. Beyond that, I simply repaired what I could with what I could find and watched Metal Sonic's movements so I could be sure I could defeat him when the time came," RK answered, moving to sit beside the small child, being cautious so as not to sit on the doll between them.

"I see, that makes sense," Itara nodded, looking around the room again, "you also… redecorated."

"A bit, to pass the time." In reality, he was also researching how children are normally cared for and found that proper living conditions were one of the requirements and had worked to set the base up in a comfortable manor for Itara's return. He didn't realize it would be a useless endeavor until now. He had even installed a very large bed in one of the extra rooms as well as a closet of clothing he thought might be useful, perhaps he should mention this to her, nonetheless. "I also redecorated that room you had the small bed in, if you wanted to take a look at that."

Itara looked over towards him, her head tilting slightly to the side before turning her head to the door behind them. It was closed so she hadn't really thought of it until he brought it up. Moving to get up off the couch, she slides her way around it and to the door, opening it almost cautiously and staring confusedly into the room. What a large bed! RK remained on the couch, but twisted, placing one arm on the back of the couch, to watch her. "The closet, as well."

Itara looked back again him again, her brows furrowed together in confusion. Turning back around rather slowly, she walked to the closet and slide the door open, staring at the line of very small clothing that was hung up in front of her. Was the bar lower than it used to be? She didn't remember ever using the closet because she didn't change clothes until the previous outfit was unwearable, but she remembered the bar being a bit out of her reach before. Reaching out, she thumbed through the clothes, wondering why RK had even bothered with anything of this, especially since it would see no use in this timeline.

Walking back out, she returned to the couch, remaining silent but RK watching her every move, wondering if he had done it correctly. "Why?"

"Most people, I have noticed, wear several outfits, especially children, but I've only seen you in one. I figured I should get you some more," he explained, "though, I realize now that they may be useless… if what you say is true."

Itara only nodded to affirm his suspicions, but remained silent beyond that. It was a very strange gesture to her, but it seemed to make a strange amount of sense at the same time. Perhaps in the next timeline she would find a use for them all. She somewhat hoped so.

It was only a few moments later when RK noticed the blinking message that the scans and preparations were complete and he was ready for the shutdown. He notified Itara of this and she nodded, albeit slowly and still clearly distracted, but got up from the couch to grab an alternate power source she had brought back. She had him move one of the chairs to a specific corner of the room, informing him that it was the safest spot in the base, and told him to sit down as she hooked him up to the power source. Setting the laptop beside him, as well, and plugging it into the wall, they both go about shutting programs down in relative silence.

"The power to the base will be cut off eventually, which is why I've brought this extra source to take over when that happens, this way you're using as little of your own body's power as possible. The longer you can avoid that, then better," she explained, shutting all the background programs of the computer down and deleting as many files as possible to avoid anyone fidgeting with the programing. "Remember, when you reactivate, the world will be a very different place. You won't need to worry about hiding from humans or Mobians, as there won't be many left, but there will be plenty of various monsters… as well as Iblis, himself. I've repaired you the best I can, you should hold up long enough."

RK nodded and checked the remaining programs he still needed to deactivate, wanting to make sure Itara told him everything before he shut them down, "and how exactly will I find you?"

"I've put the coordinates into your programming, you'll receive them as soon as you reactivate."

With a final nod from each, Itara stepped back, folding her arms behind her back and staring up at the robot in the chair. This wouldn't be the last time she saw him in this timeline, but it'd be the last time she'd see this version of him active. A slow humming filled the silent room as RK powered down, leaving only one small program that could reactivate his basic functions in the future. Itara watched the glowing green eye fade out into black and his body become motionless, staring for only a few minutes to make sure everything was going well before walking away.

There was a strange familiarity in the silence of the base, one that Itara wasn't actually overly fond of as it reminded her of the many years she spent in the run-down shack by herself. Walking back around the couch again, she picked Kipper up and walked him over to RK's lap, setting him down there. "In the coming years there will be plenty of souls for you to gain your own powers back, I only request you watch over him until he's able to reactivate," she stated aloud to the silent doll, "you have no obligation to, of course, but if you stick around long enough I will make it worth your while in another timeline." Reaching over, she patted the doll's head and made her way to the bedroom, where she changed into one of the many outfits RK had bought for her, choosing the one that seemed to match her father the best, before taking back off to meet with and assist him.


	11. Chapter 11 - Protection

Author notes: [because I can't seem to find an option for it elsewhere] Firstly, I'm sorry for the very delayed updates. I have no excuse besides a complete lack of interest. However, I came back to the story recently and finished it off within a couple days just to be done with it, as I don't like leaving projects incomplete.

However, I also did some heavy editing around Chapter 11/12 and therefore need to re-upload them completely before I can post the new chapters. So if you're noticing a few chapters pop up that you've already read, that's why. I'll be reuploading the 3 chapters I edited as well a new chapter today and then the next few chapters will be posting every couple of days until it's complete.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

* * *

The world was fire.

The flames had erupted and destroyed, setting ablaze everything in its path, reaching out further and further and scorching all life until nothing was left but fire and ashes. Buildings collapsed under the heat, civilization followed soon after, and few survived. Iblis was free… and he was angry. With nothing but the urge for destruction and no one to stand in his way, he roamed and covered the world in fire. The crisis may have started in one city… but it wasn't long before everything else went with it.

There were those who remained, who still tried to defeat the monster with the powers of a God, but their every attempt met the same failure, over and over again. The tornadoes ravaged the remaining land, the hot, dry air smothered all potential life, and the molten lava ran in rivers where water once reigned. The world belonged to the flames and nothing soon would change that.

Amongst the destroyed planet and the few fighting survivors, hidden amongst the raging fires and guarded by the small black and purple creatures she had summoned was a small, hopeful young child. Beaten and burned by the 200 years of disaster, scorched and injured by a brutal world she had only just come into when it all started, she had been left to die over and over by those that swore to protect her, time and time again. But now, armed with the even smaller dog-like crystal creatures she had learned to summon, she was filled with a new determination that both the humans and the fellow Mobians had failed to give her. She not only had a mission with promises of a better life, but the one thing no one else could give her… an explanation. From her father.

He had found her just a few weeks prior, cornered by several of the many flame-induced monsters of Iblis' creation, trying to yell them down in hopes that they might leave her be if she could intimidate them. She had never been in such close proximity of them, always having someone or something else between her and them. Of course, she had no real hope of actually succeeding in this endeavor and had nearly consigned herself to death finally, cringing away from the hot breath on her ear… when the monsters seemed to back down and simply stare at her. When she finally opened her eyes again, having not been eaten alive, she saw him standing behind the creatures. They didn't seem to bother him at all. Not only that, but they left at his command, though she was sure this wasn't Iblis.

Of course, she was still scared witless and immediately went back onto the defensive, it was then that she managed to conjure her own small creatures to stand guard in front of her. They growled and he laughed. Itara had no idea what was so funny, where the small creatures came from, or what was going on, but it didn't take long for her to get an answer in the form of a much large black and purple crystallized monster. It was almost the exact same as hers, but far larger and far more intimidating. She had seen these larger monsters running around with the flame ones before and now she knew where they came from.

The black and grey mouthless hedgehog in front of her only motioned for her to follow and, despite everything reading badly about the situation, she felt the need to follow and did just that. He led her back to a lab, questioning her and her powers along the way, which she explained to the best of her abilities. She still didn't know their full extent and had only just discovered a couple of them recently, such as summoning the creatures, so she couldn't give him full answers. But he seemed to understand. He knew.

He wasted no time explaining all the things she never could before, even showing her a few more she hadn't known about… such as the time travel. She never would have imagined she was capable of something like that… and yet he knew somehow. Then he explained how. She explained the lab she had broken out of before the disaster, the robot that hunted her down until he just suddenly stopped, the fact that she could always tell how far away Iblis was for some reason, and then he explained the rest to her.

He hadn't explicitly used the words she picked up from his explanation, he didn't respond as she had expected him to when she suggested the idea of calling him 'father', but it was obvious enough to her. He was what she came from and now she had an answer for all the questions about her parents she had been asked over the years. She was a part of him, she was connected to Iblis, they were both family to her, and it explained so much. It alleviated so much for her, when Mephiles suggested her helping him she jumped at the chance. Well, she would have jumped, but her legs were far too torn up for that sort of movement. She had had trouble just keeping up on the way to the lab, but she managed.

Once they were done talking, Mephiles left her to recover in the base, one of the few safe places in the hellish future, and Itara wasted no time finding a place to lie down. She even managed to find an old, torn lab coat in another room to fold up into a small pillow. She didn't want to go far from the room they had been in, however, and crawled under the large computer console to lie down and rest. The hard tile was surprisingly comforting considering she mostly slept on heated rocks, curled up under fallen cement to stay hidden from the creatures. In comparison, the strangely cool tiles were soothing and comfortable and she was out cold in no time.

Over the next couple weeks Mephiles continued returning to explain more to the small child, explaining her powers and testing her ability to control them. He showed her the old lab that she had been created in, or at least, what remained of it, and even showed her the reason the now broken robot who had hunted her down had stopped. It seemed he had lasted much longer than most of the other mortal creatures, but a short in his system became unrepairable eventually and he shorted himself out. He was left, apparently, still hooked to a repair machine in an abandoned base that had collapsed in on itself over time.

Mephiles trained her powers often, explaining she would need them when the time came to assist him. Amongst many of those was the ability to tap into the timelines. He taught her how to read and access the timelines, as well as how to travel between them. It was slow progress, Itara more often than not ended up going 5 minutes in the wrong direction, but she was determined to get it right and kept trying. It was the first time she finally understood something, she finally had someone like her, who could teach her and help her, and she was absolutely determined to not let him down. Though, it all did tire her out very easily, and the days came to a close relatively quickly. Picking up on the little girl's low stamina, once she started falling asleep mid-sentence, Mephiles would call the training to a close.

This time was different, however, because when he would normally instruct her to sleep and that he would be back the next day, this time he called her back over to him. She did so rather clumsily, both due to general clumsiness and to her tiredness, but she made it over and stared dutifully, through half-closed eyes, up at him waiting patiently. Finally, he explained what exactly it was that he would need her to do tomorrow and made sure the barely awake child understood past her sleepiness before sending her off to bed again. Itara gave him a small, heavy eye-lidded smile and went wobbling back to her spot under the console to sleep. She knew what to do now, it made her happy.

When she awoke again it was to the sound of voices in the room. Groggy and confused, she shot up and bumped her head with a light _thud_ on the console she had slept under, bringing the voices to a halt. After a moment of silence a face appeared in front of her, leaning down and peering at the strange girl under the computer, causing Itara to jump again and scoot further away with a yell, which, in turn, caused the face staring at her to jump and fall back, as well. Itara stared wide-eyed at the silver hedgehog in front of her until another, a cat this time, crouched down to see who had startled her friend so.

"Hello there, we're sorry to have startled you. Are you alright?"

Itara just continued staring wide-eyed at them both until she noticed that her dad was also in the room and crawled to the opposite wall to crawl out from under the console so she came out from behind Mephiles, who hadn't even glanced her way. The other two got back to their feet, watching Itara curiously, leaving the room in an awkward silence for a few more moments. It was Mephiles who finally broke it.

"Anyway, as I was saying… the one you're looking for is a blue hedgehog, the Iblis Trigger," he spoke out, turning towards the computer that had been turned on at some point, pulling up newspaper clippings from the past. Itara was just surprised to see the tech still working while the others studied the screen. "This blue hedgehog is the cause of all this, if you can find him and get rid of him, you can fix your future," he continued. Itara's eyebrows furrowed together at this, actually looking at the screen now and studying it, herself. Why did he want to stop this future? Why were they the ones to help her father with this previously unmentioned task? Who were these other people?

"How do we do this?" the cat questioned, having turned her attention back to their mouthless guide, who pulled out a bright green emerald.

"I shall take you to him, before Iblis was released, so you may stop all this."

"F-Father," there was that sideways glance again, "um, am I coming as well?" Itara leaned to the side ever so slightly to meet her father's glance, her eyes sparkling with curiosity and excitement at the chance to assist him. He had explained what and where her task was, but he hadn't mentioned that it might be in the past. Her gaze was locked so tightly on his that she completely missed the exchanged glances between the other two, who seemed almost shocked at the new information.

"No. You'll be staying here for now," Itara would deny it, but the two observers made particular note of the icy tone Mephiles took with the small girl, "Your job is here, you know this. Now go over there… and stay out of sight." Itara nodded and took a few steps back when Mephiles turned back around, creating the portal that would take himself, the silver hedgehog, and the purple cat back in time to take care of this 'Iblis Trigger'. Itara watched for a few moments after they left, then looked towards the screen again to look through the newspaper clippings, herself, out of curiosity. If this was something important to her dad she would do her best to research it so as not to fall behind. She still had some time before she had to leave for the job… though she was a bit disappointed that it didn't get to take place in the past.

.

Stepping outside the lab and looking up towards the sky that was covered in just as much fire and smoke as the ground, Itara nodded to herself and summoned the small creatures that would protect her on the way to the volcano. She was to follow Iblis' aura to the volcano and find her purpose there, but the trek was quite a ways and she would need to stay as out of sight as possible, so she would need the protection. There was a group from the past running around that she needed to avoid, specifically. She hadn't had a problem with the fire beasts since the day she met Mephiles, either because they knew her now or because Mephiles kept them at bay, she wasn't sure which, but there were plenty other dangers in her path.

Pulling the makeshift hood over her head and ears, she looked down at the small, alert creatures and nodded for them to follow her as she took off. She couldn't run and she needed to save as much energy as possible so teleportation was out of the question, but she could at least do a small hover to keep herself from tripping about.

She had grown used to most of the terrain since the disaster happened, luckily, she would have been a lot worse for wear if not, but she had always avoided the mountains. There was no shortage of lava throughout the land, but the closer to the volcano she got, the more lava there was, and she usually didn't want to be near that. Today would be the exception, as she was specifically going into the volcano and she didn't know that terrain almost at all. It was far more treacherous than she could have imagined and almost fell off plenty of edges on the way to the inner caves, suddenly finding herself very grateful for the small creatures she had conjured up that kept her safe.

Eventually, she found it. Well, she found the injured Iblis recovering from a recent fight. Just like the smaller creatures, this was the first time she had been this close to the molten giant and decided keeping her distance was the best course of action. She wasn't here for Iblis, after all, she was only supposed to follow his aura so she could find the right cave. But the longer she watched the giant worm-like creature lie half out of the lava, clearly trying to recover, the more she was drawn towards him and subconsciously started inching closer towards him.

"…You're… Iblis… right? Or, at least, part of him?" she questioned, continuing forward one tiny step at a time, watching with widened, cautious eyes, the purple in her eyes flaring out anxiously. Her entire body was stiff and the crystals were starting to tip up through her spines as she drew near, almost freezing in place when the worm seemed to turn towards her. "Um… I won't… I won't hurt you… or… rather… please don't hurt _me_ , okay? I just…" She wasn't even sure why she was trying to talk to a giant lava worm, but she felt the need to communicate to the other part of her being somehow, now that she knew, "I've been able to sense you for a really long time now… and now I know why, I'm a piece of Mephiles… your other half. Um…" She was near the edge of the drop off into the lake of molten lava and the piece of Iblis had clearly moved nearer, as well, during this conversation, though Itara couldn't fully judge why, "anyway, I just… wanted to say thank you… for not attacking me… with your creatures that day. I've learned a lot since then and… I hope you heal well. I have to go help my daddy now, but if I stay in this timeline for longer I'll come back and visit, okay? Bye, Iblis."

She couldn't help the small smile that came out as she waved and turned to go find her dad like she was supposed to. She almost took off running, feeling strangely comforted by the giant lava worm's shiny green eye, but then realized quickly how much of a mistake it would be and calmed back down to walk. Even with the unbearable heat, even more so in this enclosed space, she felt far more comfortable around Iblis and Mephiles than she could have ever imagined. She wanted to help both of them however she could.


	12. Chapter 12 - Cost

It didn't take her much longer to find where she needed to go, hearing the sound of her dad's voice echoing throughout the cavern and quickened her pace to meet up with him, but also began shaking ever so slightly. She'd never been in a fight, not really, and her dad mentioned that the opponent was especially powerful. What if she messed up and got her dad hurt? Shaking the idea from her head, her brows furrowed as she decided she would definitely succeed no matter what. It didn't matter who she had to face, she'd keep her dad safe!

There was quite a commotion going on when she neared the right place, leaning against the wall and ushering for her little creatures to follow her lead, listening for a moment before peaking her head around the side. Her eyes widened at the sight before her as she stared in awe and confusion.

It wasn't just her dad and one opponent, it was a veritable _army_ of her dad and making his way through all of them was this extremely fast being covered in a bright, yellow light of some kind. Behind him were two others she couldn't fully make out, but one of them looked huge. They were making it with ease through the hundreds of copies of her dad but she couldn't tell which one was actually him. Narrowing her eyes, she scanned the area, moving the hood just slightly so her ears could be free so she could hear properly. Her dad had such a distinct laugh and she loved listening to it so much. It took her quite some time but she finally spotted who she thought was the original Mephiles far out of reach of the three on the ground. That was good, he was safe for now.

She watched and studied the fight for a bit longer, noting how very similar one of the group looked to her dad and finding it rather weird. She would have to ask her dad about that later, but he wasn't kidding about that one being powerful. There was an aura coming off him that was hard to ignore and made her wonder who exactly this guy was and why he was after her dad. Then there were the other two, a robot and a bat. The robot was huge and the bat was fast and agile, they both looked like formidable foes and it made her shake that much more thinking about facing them. She may have been training her powers a bit more, but if anything it just made her realize how weak she was compared to her dad. It made sense, she was only a piece of him, her powers would be incredibly limited in comparison.

But if he had troubles with these three, what was she supposed to do?

She couldn't think that, though, if her dad thought she could help then clearly she could do _something_ and she was going to do it! Nodding to herself again, she looked back over towards the battle, noticing that her dad was getting to the end of his rope, he was facing them himself now. The clones had to wear him down, though, she was sure. Maybe this is where he needed her.

Looking back towards her creatures, she motioned for them to follow her again and snuck her way into the room, trying her absolute best to stay hidden from sight until she could get closer. She had to do a bit of teleporting this time, though, but managed to get behind a pillar that was relatively close. Taking a deep breath, she sent her creatures out to attack and distract the robot while she built up as much of an energy attack as she could to blast towards the bat. She was hoping if she distracted two of the three enough it could be enough to give her dad the upper hand.

What she didn't realize was that it wouldn't be that easy.

While she did manage to get the jump on them at first, nearly dropping the bat and giving the robot plenty of a run off-course, the black hedgehog was still gunning for her dad and the bat recovered quickly, changing her focus to Itara. Itara tried to remain hidden behind the pillar but upon realizing it wasn't going to fool someone who could fly, she tried sinking into the shadow to vanish into a cloud of fog. It worked briefly enough that Itara managed to get back behind the bat to tackle her back to the ground, but there was a considerable size difference that kept Itara from being much more than an inconvenience.

"Hey! What are you doing, kid?!" the bat yelled, pulling the small hedgehog off her back and holding her up by the back of the makeshift coat, "it's dangerous here, what are you even doing in a place like this?"

Itara gave no answer but instead just easily slipped out of the coat to teleport off again, leaving the disgruntled bat behind to help the robot deal with the one remaining creature Itara had summoned. The other one was already destroyed. None of this seemed to distract the other hedgehog from his fight with Mephiles, either, and Itara was growing worried that maybe she'd messed up. Especially since her dad was getting increasingly closer to defeat.

In a split second of panic, seeing that the black hedgehog was preparing some kind of huge attack and her dad was directly in the path of it, Itara decided this was where she needed to help her dad the most and teleported in front of him at the last second, taking the brunt of the attack for him. Even though she was so much smaller and weaker, she couldn't let her dad be hit by it, he was in danger and had already been fighting far longer.

She knew it was a risky move; there was a chance it did absolutely nothing and just left both of them extremely vulnerable to this group, but it was a risk she was willing to take. What she didn't realize, however, was just how much it would hurt to be hit by whatever that blast even was. Having put herself between the blast and her dad as much as possible, she not only went flying back from the hit, but toppled right over her dad in the process, landing several feet behind him. Once the dust and rubble settled and the group looked over to see if the fight had finally ended, they were instead stricken with horror at the fact that Mephiles seemed relatively unfazed but the small girl that suddenly came into view behind him looked far worse.

Mephiles got back to his feet, let out a laugh, and looked over the group, "As if it'd be so easy, Shadow." He moved to the air and with one final burst of power, blew the three back before vanishing into a cloud of smoke and leaving the area while they regained their footing.

"Dammit, he escaped."

"Shadow, that little girl…"

The three changed their attention to the small girl who was still lying on her side where she had landed. As they walked towards her, she started coughing and whining, coming back to her senses but still completely unaware of the group approaching her. All she could focus on was how much everything hurt at the moment.

"Do you think she actually protected Mephiles herself?" Rouge questioned, "She tried to attack me earlier during the fight… but she's so young."

"If she's working with Mephiles then I don't care, I want answers," Shadow growled in response, kneeling down to see if he could get her attention or not, but he didn't get a chance before jumping back just in time to not get a heavy robotic knee to the face. The entire group moves back and into a defensive pose, ready to fight again if they had to and studying the tall red being that had just landed between them and Itara.

"Touch her and I'll snap you in half," the robot threatened, getting into a fighting stance of his own, two extended claws and a hook up and ready to strike. He was relatively roughed up, the red fur that covered his robotic parts singed and scarred in areas, the black tank top he wore torn in several spots, as well as the black pants. The exposed half of his glass eye cover cracked clean down the middle and both the claws and hook sporting several chips and dents in them. He looked like he'd been inactive for years.

The four stared each other down until Omega spoke up, "You are Robo-Knuckles, are you not? Why are you assisting Mephiles?"

"I'm not, I don't give a damn about Mephiles, it's her I'm protecting," RK snapped.

"You know him, Omega?" Rouge questioned, looking up towards the much bulkier robot.

"I do, he is also one of Dr. Robotnik's creations, though according to my files he went missing several years before the Day of Disaster."

"Oh, so a Robotnik and a Mephiles-helper in one spot, sounds like an opportunity," Shadow grinned, still clearly angry over Mephiles' escape and just looking for a fight now. RK glowered at the hedgehog, daring him to make a move, to which he happily obliged. Shadow was the first one to make a move, but RK was the first to get a hit out after several dodges from both parties. The black and red hedgehog went flying across the room and crashed into a pillar, but was back up and behind the robot within a matter of seconds, kicking him in the back to send the robot flying in turn. However, the robot only flipped back onto his feet and darted back towards his opponent.

While they were throwing each other across the area, Rouge and Omega took the opportunity to check on the little girl, who had finally actually opened her eyes, only to curl back up and shut them tightly again. Rouge watched for a moment before slow approaching and kneeling down next to her, reaching out to rest a hand on the girl's forehead, "hey, hey I'm not gonna hurt you, alright? Can you talk, sweetie?"

It took a moment for Itara to realize someone was even talking before she opened one eye to look up, getting instantly scared at the sight of the two she had tried fighting earlier and tried darting up to back away from them. It caused Rouge to jump but the sudden movement only caused Itara more pain as she doubled back over, gasping for breath. "Hey, hey, calm down, calm down, you're gonna hurt yourself more… I promise, we're not… gonna hurt you… just calm down, okay?"

The sudden noise from Itara caused a brief moment of distraction for RK, not long but enough for Shadow to get him square in the arm and nearly rip it off. He was lucky he was built for durability so he could instead turn what should have been disabling into an upper hand for him by hooking Shadow's arm to keep him still and plant his foot directly into the hedgehog's side, sending him flying. He took those few seconds to make sure Itara wasn't be attacked by the other two before focusing back on Shadow again.

Rouge takes a look over the young girl, trying to see if she could figure out what all was injured in the blast, but it was hard to tell what was recent and what was older with her curled up so tightly and shaking so much. "Sweetie, if you let me take a look at your injuries we might be able to help, but you're gonna have to relax a little, okay? Can you do that?" There was no response from the girl but eventually she seemed to calm enough to stop shaking so much. Rouge thought she might actually let her take a look at her injuries and moves to try and get a look at the little girl's arm. Instead, however, Itara snapped her arm tightly back up against her.

"M-m-y… d-da-d…" she mumbled, almost angrily, "w-what di-d… wh-what did you… d-do to my… dad?"

"Your… dad?" There was a moment of silence as Rouge tried to process the possibilities behind her question, though Itara took that time to drag herself further away and try to push herself to her feet, unsuccessfully. "You're not… talking about Mephiles… are you?" Itara glared at her from where she had fallen back down and gave a small, shaky nod. "…He… well he got away, if that's what you mean… he left. But is he really…?" The small smile that broke out on Itara's face was all the answer Rouge needed, well, sort of. She had no idea how this was even possible, but she didn't really have time to question it right now. "Listen, your… dad… is fine… but you're not. Will you let me take a look at you now?"

Itara shook her head, very slowly, going back to her attempt at a glare through half-lidded eyes, "I don't… need h-help from… _you_."

Before Rouge could argue further, there was a sudden rumbling that echoed through what seemed the entire mountain, causing everyone to stop in their places and look around. The rumbling only continued until the walls and floors and ceiling began to shake.

"Shit."

"Shadow! We need to leave! Now!"

"Itara!"

Rouge looked towards Itara again, "please, come on, you need to get out of here, let me help you!"

"No!"

"Rouge, Omega, let's go."

Rouge jumped to her feet, but RK was already halfway across the room headed for Itara. The group of three left the area soon, headed for the outside to get out before they got trapped. Itara attempted to get up on her own again, but had no more success than the first time, though before she could fall again, RK had her in his arms and was headed out of the cave.

"What? N-no! Who are you?! L-let me… let me down! I-I have to… I have to help my…." Itara screamed, attempting to struggle out of the much larger robot's arms but before she could do her own body much more damage, her eyes turned dead black and she fell unconscious.

"…Thanks, Kipper."

There was no verbal response but the yellow ghostly doll floated up from the girl's body and flashed a giant grin filled with sharp, pointed teeth, then it simply followed RK the rest of the way back out of the mountain. Eventually the shaking stopped and the trio reached the outside safely once again. RK looked down at the unconscious girl and frowned, scowling after a moment before starting the trek back down the mountain and towards the base he had activated from. "She's badly injured, I can tell that much already, can you take a better look, Kipper?"

"Sure thing," the apparition of a doll mumbled before sinking back into her body to assess the damage. It was only a few minutes before he returned, "Seems bad internally. Can an immortal time traveler die from internal bleeding, I wonder?"

"…I'd rather not find out," RK growled, taking off in a run again, wanting to return to the base as quickly as possible so he could do what he could for her. This was the exact time Itara told him to reactivate and when he would reach her. She knew what would happen, why would she have him show up so late like this? What exactly caused this? If he remembered correctly… she said she had to do something for her father.

So that's what it was.


	13. Chapter 13 - Disrepair

"…if you can't figure it out, you know I can always take a look."

"No, I've got it… I don't want you making this more difficult than it needs to be."

"What makes you think I'll…?"

…

.

"Kipper, I'm going to need more bandages."

"… _sigh_ , alright, fine, I'll go see what else I can find."

"And while you're at it… see if you can find any more power sources I can use."

"Heh, running low again, huh? Looks like she didn't fully-"

"I didn't ask for your sass, bandages and power source, get on it!"

"Fine, fine. I doubt I'll find much at this point…"

…

.

There was silence this time around. Beyond the guttural rumbling of the outside world and the crackling of the eternal fires, there wasn't a sound to be heard. But it was certainly heavy. Itara was sore and exhausted, dizzy without even opening her eyes yet, and what wasn't sore was numb. She was expecting to slip back into sleep as she had been doing, but after a few minutes of waiting, realized she wasn't going to for a bit and decided to try getting up. Her eyelids were almost as heavy as the air and resisted the mere idea of opening, but the silence was growing more panic-inducing by the second and she needed to know what happened. The first word out of her mouth was a hoarse, shaken call for her dad as the world started coming into her blurry view. This wasn't the base she had been in before.

Calling for her dad again, blinking the blurriness away, she started trying to push herself up. The room was relatively dark but lit with a harsh red glow, cast from the burning embers of the wooden room. Looking down, she was on a poorly rebuilt bed, most of the blanket under her was torn, dirtied, and burnt at the edges, same as the black material that had been bundled up to make a pillow. Finally her vision cleared enough to get a better look around the room, itself. The wooden walls were broken and burnt, the edge still covered in embers from the fires, but still somehow fairly sturdy in comparison to most wooden buildings in the rest of the world. The bed she was on was in the middle of the room, the headboard up against the back wall away from the doorframe, where the actual door had probably fallen off years ago from melted hinges. The only remaining doors she could see were two sliding ones on a far wall, though one of them had fallen inwards and a large crack ran horizontally down the middle, it looked bent and ready to snap in half at the lightest touch. Inside the small area behind the door there were melted coat hanger remains with burnt, unrecognizable pieces of material hanging off them as well as a couple pairs of long since unwearable shoes. Beyond this, the only things in the room were torn pieces of yellowed material beside the bed on a small makeshift stool next to a partially melted plastic tub.

Itara managed to push herself into a sitting position, just enough to lean cautiously back against the headboard and look over herself to figure out why everything was so sore and numb. It didn't take long to remember the fight, but it took a few minutes to realize how she got to this broken down room and why she was wrapped in various torn cloths. While she was in the process, there was a brief movement to her right but when she looked up to see what it was, there was nothing there. Furrowing her eyebrows together, she started slowly looking around the room again, not sure she could get up off the bed and defend herself just yet. Then it popped out in front of her.

.

RK had gone on a quick run to search for a power source to keep himself active, since the possessed doll he had sent the first time came back empty pawed, and decided to look for any active readings, himself. It was almost a fruitless venture until he picked up a very faint reading, it was the best he would get and followed it. He was in luck, there was a hidden base not too far from his location with some salvageable parts. Once he had what he needed, he headed quickly back to his own base, having left Kipper in charge of keeping an eye on Itara and didn't fully trust the doll to take care of her… or not scare the life right out of her.

He was just reaching the base he had remained in during the 200 year wait when a horrified, but hoarse, scream echoed from the building. RK wasted no time getting inside to defend the little girl who had apparently finally woken up. Upon entering the room, he found Itara on the floor beside the bed, staring wide-eyed at the small yellow doll that was now floating above said bed with a grin. "Hey! What did I say about scaring her?!" RK growled angrily, setting the parts by the door to go to the terrified girl's side, the doll watching him now.

"It's not my fault, she scares easily, apparently."

RK shot the doll a glare before turning his full attention to Itara, reaching out to pick her up, only to have her clumsily flail away from him, turning her attention right back at him and yelling, "w-who a-are you?! W-what do you… what do you w-want?!"

"Itara, calm down, alright, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you but you really need to stop moving so much, you're going to injure yourself further," RK explained, his tone calming, becoming far more soothing, despite an occasional glitch in his voice that altered into a computerized monotone. While he had remained mostly intact during his rest, there were a few more unrepairable glitches than when he had gone into sleep mode, as well as a few exposed robotic parts where the fur covering had burnt off.

It took a few minutes of coaxing, but eventually RK managed to convince the terrified child that he wouldn't hurt her enough to let him put her back in the bed, though he grabbed the floating doll by the tails to reprimand him for scaring her. Afterwards, RK looked over her to make sure none of her injuries had reopened or worsened with all her moving about. Luckily it didn't look like it.

"Y-You didn't… you didn't answer… my question," Itara eventually muttered out, stumbling slightly over her words, which seemed to bother her more than the lack of answer.

"We're your guardian angels," the small doll, that was now resting on the top of the headboard, grinned down at her, receiving another scowl from the big red robot that was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"My name is RK, and that little creature is called Tails Doll, though you named him Kipper," RK explained, "another version of you, an older version, I suppose. You rescued me from one of Robotnik's collapsed bases after an explosion and repaired me the best you could, then asked me to power down until a specific time in the future, to protect you now. Kipper I just bought in an old shop 200 years ago when he couldn't move or talk as a present for you. You named him then. He's just stuck around for whatever reason, though he's come in handy since my reactivation."

"There isn't exactly a whole lot else to do in this timeline anymore," Kipper stated, his small, rounded, plush hands going up to motion a shrug.

"Oh… I… I see…" Itara stammered, looking between the two. Considering she had only recently even learned about her time travelling abilities, much of this confused her, but she decided if her future? Past? Self… deemed this all necessary then she would at least trust the strange robot. "Did you say Robotnik?"

"Yes, I was built by Robotnik but my loyalty chip was damaged, along with many other vital programs, during the explosion. You and I repaired what we could after, but disabled the loyalty chip completely. I am what would be considered a rogue robot now, as a new chip was never installed."

"You don't… you aren't… there isn't a… a loyalty… program to me? Or, my future… past… ah… whatever self? Then why do you… what reason do you… protect me?" Itara questioned, growing more and more agitated with her own stuttering. She knew she was clumsy with her words, having come directly from a lab and immediately going on the run because of a destroyed world left her no time to properly learn how to communicate with others. Not to mention her attachment with whatever body she inhabited was unstable, it created several problems but there were tricks her father had suggested that could lessen said problems. However, she needed her powers to correct these mistakes and most seemed out of reach at the moment, she was too tired.

"He Mother Hens," Kipper grinned in response to her question before RK could. "For a robot with no loyalties, he's very strangely attached to you… its entertaining, really. You were probably too out of it to notice, but you should have seen him fighting Shadow when we showed up to save your tiny ass." RK nearly growled at the bemused little doll, but Itara just scrunched her nose up at the response. She didn't much like the idea of needing saving when her entire purpose during that fight was to help her dad.

"My dad! Where… where is he? Is he… alright?" Itara was panicked once again and this seemed to do no favors for RK's annoyance at Kipper.

"We don't know where he went, but I'm sure he's fine," RK all but snapped, "he was already gone by the time we arrived, but considering Shadow's attention was on you, I can only assume he escaped when you took the hit for him." Itara calmed at this answer, glad that she had done her job correctly, but this only angered RK. "Why would you do that? You could have been seriously hurt. Shadow is not someone to mess around with and you're clearly not strong enough to take him on, yourself."

"Because my dad… needed me," Itara smiled, "I was just… I just wanted to… help. I'm not strong enough to… I can't help him with… the bigger plans, so I did what… I do what I can."

"You were on the verge of dying, you know. Can't help but wonder if that was Mephiles' plan all along, you do have part of his power, after all. If you die, he probably gets it back." Itara stared at Kipper for a moment, mulling over a response. She hadn't really realized that, or she had specifically avoided thinking about that potential, she didn't want to doubt her dad like that. Even if it did make sense, she refused to admit it. She only shook her head.

"That's dumb, I wouldn't… I couldn't help him further… if I died."

There was silence in the room for a few minutes as they all debated on the idea of arguing this further but all of them came to the same conclusion of it being a pointless topic, for one reason or another, and decided it best to move on. Itara wasn't going to be convinced otherwise, Kipper didn't care enough, and RK didn't want her getting upset and making her healing process take any longer. He wanted to make sure he'd stay active long enough for her to recover, he didn't want to purposely do anything to make that take longer than it already would. He was short for time enough as it was.

* * *

.

Just a couple more days, he just needed to last a couple more days, and she should be recovered enough for her powers to work again. It was getting down to the wire, though. The replacement pieces he had found were less effective than he had hoped for, but he was hoping they could hold out if he used as little energy as possible while also making sure he could at least take care of Itara. It was becoming apparent just how short his energy levels were getting, though, to both Itara and Kipper.

Itara was at least able to get up and walk around a little now, but stayed relatively close to the robot so he didn't have to worry about following her around and wasting energy. As much as she would have preferred taking off to find her dad, there was a good chance he was no longer in this timeline now and she wasn't strong enough yet to travel in time to look for him. So she stayed with the very protective robot… and the strange doll. Kipper only made remarks every once in a while, occasionally offering to lend a hand when it looked like RK wouldn't be able to handle it. RK would have commented on it far more often but he needed to reserve his energy for taking care of the little healing time traveler. She needed to get back to the past where it was safer and he would make sure of it. In the meantime, he informed her on whatever files he could still access on his limited resources to tell her about the past that she had missed out on.

"I only saw the world in… the world's colors for a few… a couple days before… all the… fire came," Itara explained after one such story time, "I shall be sure to go… I'll go back and see… far more of it, though."

RK nodded, one of the rusting joints under the fur creaked in the process. He hadn't been able to keep them as finely tuned as he would have liked and the rusting was really starting to become a problem. "I hope you do, there's much to see. Someday you'll master your time travelling well enough to travel often and to many different eras, you'll no longer be stuck in this hellish future."

"I will bring you with me and we will fix all these… broken pieces, as well as Kipper, now that he can… now that he's moving… so he may also experience the past as it should be," Itara beamed, "my daddy is also all over the timelines, I will… I can find him and help where I can there, as well."

A small frown came across RK's face now as he studied the little girl sitting cross-legged on the bed across from him. "You can't bring Kipper or I, I'm afraid. The reason I needed to shut down 200 years is because you are unable to bring anyone but yourself through timelines. But we will meet in the past as we've already done."

Itara's face mimicked the robot's quickly enough at this explanation, staring at him for a few moments, "Oh. I see. Well… then I will… rescue you before you are broken in the explosion."

"If you do that my loyalty chip will still be intact, I'm unsure if you'll be able to rewire it completely."

Silence drifted around the room as Itara thought long and hard about what to do about this situation, she wanted things to be different than what they were currently. "Then I will… change the next timeline… so the world does not meet this fate. My daddy said… the reason the world is like this… the reason is because of the… "Day of Disaster" because Iblis was released incorrectly. I will change that… and then I will fix you better… and find a way for… I'll figure something out for Kipper." Absolute determination came over the small girl's face at this statement and RK nodded in agreement.

"I wish you success in that, then. I can't fully calculate your chances, but I wish you _luck_ in this endeavor. I'm sure my other timeline self would prefer to see a different outcome than this."

"I think she'll succeed," Kipper added in, "call it 'doll's intuition' hehe."

RK stared at the doll, decently sure he had just made that up just now, but decided against saying anything about it. "In any case, you should rest now, Itara. You've been up for several hours already."

Itara gave a disgruntled huff but gave in easily enough and laid down, she was getting tired, anyway. "While I'm… Are you going to repair your arm while I'm sleeping?"

Both the robot and the little girl looked towards the robot's left arm, the one that had been damaged from the get-go, which had a hook replacing his hand. It had rapidly lost function since he reactivated, becoming all but useless at this point and none of RK's best efforts seemed to change that. "I will try, but it does not seem repairable at this point, not without the proper tools, which have long since become unavailable. Don't worry about it, though, I'm still able to protect you without it."

"That's not my worry," Itara mumbled, but nodded and got as comfortable as she could on the broken bed, closing her eyes to sleep again. The robot and doll waited a good while to make sure the little one was asleep before Kipper spoke up.

"I'm no robotics specialist… but you aren't lasting much longer."

"I'm aware."

"Gonna last 'til she recovers?"

"Yes."

"And what then?"

There was silence for a few long minutes before RK responded, "I will make sure she will be safe and then I will shut down… for good. I can't maintain functions much longer than that. Half my programming is already glitching and parts of my external body are malfunctioning, like this arm. There's no possibility for repairs and no body I can transfer into in this future… it's unfortunate, but fact. It's better than being left for scrap after that explosion."

"Right… by the way, I found Metal Sonic. Or rather, I found what remains of him. I guess he was irreparable after a time, as well."

"…I assumed as much," RK nodded, looking over the sleeping child to get up and move to the other room. The base he had worked those two years before Itara's return to build up went into immediate disrepair. The entire base was in shambles now and most was burnt and crumbled, including almost all the furniture and the laptop he had originally been hooked up to. But Itara had been right; it was safe enough that he had at least lasted the 200 years. Some of the fur he was covered in had burnt off but nothing major happened until he reactivated. "As long as she's safe by the end of all this."


	14. Chapter 14 - Engulfed

"Don't push it if you don't think you're up to it yet, alright?"

"I've got it."

From the fiery ground, lumps of burning coal began shifting and rising, the bright orange embers shifting to blues and eventually purples as the form of an almost-dog comes through. Its shape shuddered as it tried to finalize… before shattering back down into the ground and glowing with the orange of the normal fires again. Itara sighed, dropping her head in annoyance. She had been so weak since the fight that even her most basic powers were nearly non-existent, but she was determined to be able to use them again. A hand rested on her head, rubbing lightly as RK crouched carefully down beside her.

"Try again, you've got it."

It was a complete swap from what he was saying just before, but Itara took it with confidence and stood back up straight, concentrating on the little monster dogs she knew she could summon and trying again. After a few more minutes of struggling, the form of the dogs that had previously been protecting her came into existence from the coals. With a huff of both exhaustion and pride, Itara stood straight and moved her hands to her hips, "I knew I had it!"

"Good job, Itara, you'll be back in full swing in no time," RK grinned over at her, rubbing her head before reaching over to pick her up and head back inside, not wanting to be outside much longer. They didn't have the most stable hiding place Itara had ever stayed in, but it was stable enough and kept them out of view of most things. It did its job.

Once inside, the small purple-imbued animals following along, RK set Itara on the still-standing countertop of the kitchen, "Kipper managed to scavenge up some small treats, I'm sure you're hungry after all that practice?"

"Yes. What did he find? Where did he find it?"

RK turned towards the small backpack that had been lying across the opposite counter, reaching into it and pulling out a small, battered up cloth baggie and handing it to her, "I'm not sure but he said he had to go pretty far to find it." Itara pulled the small string around the top of the baggie to open it, revealing a mostly crumbled stack of small cookies.

"Wow… that really is a treat," Itara grinned, folding her legs up in front of her and instantly going to munch on the very stale cookies.

"I'll leave you to that, then," RK pat her head and headed out of the kitchen to sit down on the single chair in what remained of the living room, studying the little dog creatures that were sitting patiently between the rooms. Itara was growing stronger and only had a few bruises and scrapes left, as well as regaining control over her powers. She would be at full strength before much longer… he was glad. He only hoped she would be alright after that, considering what she already pulled just to protect Mephiles, it worried him that she would risk possibly dying to appease him. What else would she risk if he asked? While he wasn't around to protect her, no less. He could just hope that whatever other timeline is created through his efforts now saw a better outcome for her, and whatever other version of himself came about could protect her better.

.

"RK… RK! Hey, wake up!"

RK's visual censors came back online to reveal the small child that was currently up on her knees on his lap, staring with a tilted head down at him, her eyes slightly narrowed. Behind her, Kipper was floating about just above her head, also staring curiously at the robot who hadn't even realized he'd gone into sleep mode.

"What is it?"

"We couldn't get you… you wouldn't come out of… sleep mode… for a while," Itara explained, furrowing her eyebrows even further. She looked concerned. "Are you losing power?"

RK was already running a couple diagnostic tests to figure it out, but just shook his head, "I just wanted a nap."

"You don't nap, you're a robot."

"What makes you think robots don't need the occasional nap?"

"Because you... specifically told me they didn't."

The test completed, informing RK that his power levels were, in fact, running incredibly low and that he would need to reconnect to a power source soon if he didn't want to shut down. He kept this from the little girl, however, and instead just started looking for more programs he could shut down to conserve as much power as possible. "How long was I in sleep mode for, then?"

"Several hours," Kipper spoke up, eyeing the robot suspiciously as Itara finally climbed down from the lap she was half-standing on, moving a couple steps back. The three sat in silence for a few long moments as a low humming started up in the distance, growing louder until it turned into a drumming roar. Itara was the first to head for the door to go check it out while Kipper and RK exchanged glances, the Kipper followed after the small girl.

Opening the door, Itara and Kipper stared off in the distance towards the noise, staring for a few moments until the large, fiery tornado made itself and its path clear. It was on a direct course for the small shack they resided in. Itara's eyes widened as the realization hit her and she turned back towards the room, "we gotta… there's a… there's a huge…"

"Tornado. There's a tornado headed this way. We need to move," Kipper spoke up again, knowing the girl was going to trip over her words for a good few minutes in her panic and figured they all ought to get moving. That thing was huge, moving fast, and scorching everything within 100 yards of it. If they didn't move _now_ they'd get caught up in the flames and debris that were just being flung from the main tornado.

RK was up and out of his chair quickly enough, realizing the dangers quickly enough without even seeing the tornado yet, moving to pick Itara up again with his good arm, "let's move, then." Luckily, none of them really had anything that needed to be grabbed and they could just get right out.

Once outside, RK studied the massive tornado for just a moment before motioning for Kipper to follow him, the doll made no arguments and the three immediately headed towards the safest route away from the danger. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a straight-shot considering how many collapsed building and wreckage surrounded the shack. The reason it had remained so untouched was because of how barricaded it had become in the disasters, leaving their only escape route to go directly towards the tornado and then turn off to the side before it could reach them. It would be a close situation but with RK's speed they would make it. However, because they would be going directly into the heat first, the robot removed what remained of his jacket and threw it over the child in his arms to keep her as shielded as possible. Kipper simply went ethereal to keep from running into problems.

Itara wrapped the jacket around her as much as possible, but kept enough of an opening so she could watch what was happening, far too curious to simply hide inside the jacket completely. She'd seen plenty of fire tornadoes, but it was rare to see one of quite this size, though not impossible. The world was wracked with devastation, it didn't get that way with minor disasters. She'd never, however, been quite this close to one before, it almost reminded her of the giant lava worm she'd seen before the fight in the cave.

As Itara stared in wonder, oblivious to everything but the tornado, itself, Kipper was paying far more attention to the robot carrying her than she was. Needless to say, the struggling that went completely over the child's head wasn't missed by the little yellow doll. RK was not only slowing down, but he was struggling to stay active at all. At this rate he and the little time traveler would get caught up in the massive storm.

"You sure you're gonna make it?" the doll chided, catching a glare from the robot.

"Of course… I…"

This finally caught Itara's attention as she looked up from her little jacket hole towards the robot and doll with slightly widened eyes. Was RK losing power?! Now?!

"Are you sure… are you sure you'll… be okay?!" she yelled over the growling storm as they all drew nearer and debris started flying past them.

"Yes! Don't worry, Itara, I won't let anything happen to you, okay?"

"That's not my concern!"

The debris kept flying and the winds picked up, it made Itara relieved that RK was such a heavy robot, she would have been swept right away if she had been on her own. Though even he seemed to be having troubles pushing against the high wind speeds, she wasn't sure whether it was because of his power struggles or the wind, itself, but it didn't bode well either way.

Finally, RK realized they wouldn't make it out of the way quick enough the way this was going, he was on too short of a power supply to fully push against this tornado and he wasn't going to chance putting Itara in that much danger. He was doomed to destruction after his shutdown, anyway, and Kipper could ghost his way out of the fires, but Itara was in danger and he wasn't lying when he said he wouldn't let anything happen to her. Looking around briefly and assessing their current surroundings, he changes direction for a nearby collapsed building with plenty of metal rafters to create a small, somewhat protected cave.

Upon reaching it, he quickly puts himself between Itara and the winds, setting her inside the small crawl space, slamming his claws into the concrete to anchor himself down so he could block wind and debris.

"Wh-what are you… what are you doing?! We gotta… you can't stop… we gotta get out of here!" Itara yelled in a panic, staring wide-eyed up at the robot, who exchanged a quick glance with Kipper before turning his attention back towards her.

"I'm losing power, I can't get us out of the storm in time."

"Then I'll-!"

"No, listen. I know you're still recovering, but I can't get you out of harm's way in time right now… if ever there was a time to travel, this is it. Go back, as far as you can possibly manage, but you need to do it quickly. I can block most of the storm for a little, but I can't hold this for too long."

"But-!"

"Don't waste time arguing, there's none to waste. Go back to the past I've told you about, alright? There are more timelines waiting for you, but you need to go _now_ , Itara."

Itara stared at the robot for a few seconds, wanting to argue but the storm only drew closer and even she could recognize the fact that they would never make it out in time now. And she couldn't travel in time with others. With a growl of frustration, she turned away from the robot and started working on creating a portal to the past. As far back as she could go. She had no idea how far that would be, she barely managed more than a few days by the end of her training with her dad, to go back over 200 years seemed inconceivable. But she would go however far back she could. If anything, she could just go back bit by bit, taking breaks in between travelling until she got where she needed.

But she didn't want to leave RK and Kipper yet.

As her portals fluctuated and flashed in and out, RK and Kipper exchanged a few looks but no words. They both understood the situation well enough and instead decided to keep their focus on Itara, Kipper eventually deciding to lend a final helping hand. Floating over to the struggling time traveler, his red gem glowing brightly as he ghosted his way into her, offering her the power he'd gained from the souls he'd collected over the years. The whites of her eyes turned a deep red and the tips of her spines began crystallizing as her portal fluctuated once more and became stable. Turning back towards RK, Kipper floated back out of Itara, though left most of his power with her and solidified back into the stuffed doll. Itara eyed both of them, frowning heavily, but with a nod to get going from RK, she sighed.

"I'll fix things in the next timeline. I promise."

Both the robot and the doll nodded and Itara turned towards the portal and walked through it, disappearing soon enough as the portal closed behind her, leaving the two in the hopeless future.

"She should be able to make it back decently far," Kipper grinned, floating over to the robot and resting down into his hook.

"How much power did you give her?"

"Enough."

"…Thank you, Tails Doll."

The doll nodded as RK turned back towards the raging inferno of a storm that was much closer by now, throwing debris, fire, and even larger beams from the collapsed buildings around. RK sighed, pulling his claws out from the cement and sitting against the beam that had helped shield Itara. They would both be swept up in the winds and storm now, but there was an acceptance between them as RK finally allowed his body to power down. His barely still glowing green eye faded out and his body gave off a light whirring as the systems shut off one-after-another. Kipper did his best to nudge himself between the robot's leg and hook, though knew they'd both be swept off before too long, or crushed under a beam, either way it would be a violent scene. He would just go back into a deep slumber as he had done before, at least it had been fun in the meantime.


	15. Chapter 15 - New Plan

Itara pushed as far as she could manage, deciding she would use every ounce of her strength to get as far back as possible, just as RK had told her to, and eventually just couldn't go any further. Her head was throbbing, her body was fatigued, her mind was exhausted, and she had to come to a stop. A portal opened before her and she all but fell out of it, finally getting out of reach of the heat behind her. Luckily the portal was only a couple inches off the ground so when she fell through and nearly landed on her face it wasn't very long of a fall. Still, she had to lay there for a few minutes to recollect herself. It wasn't until she pushed herself up onto her knees that she looked around enough to realize she was in a large field of tall grass. Very tall, very green grass.

Looking up further and studying her surroundings, she was on the verge of a thick forest full of green tree tops and brown trunks and all above her was a bright blue sky. There was a soft, cool wind blowing and it was such a drastic change from the heat she was used to that it actually caused a shiver to run up her spine. Pushing herself up to her feet and continuing to gaze around, she took in all the color and beauty with awe and amazement. On the other side of the forest was the entrance to a small town, with standing buildings, she could even hear the soft murmur of people coming from it. She had no idea where or when she ended up, but it was so much better already.

She would need to find out where in time she ended up, but for the time being she was exhausted, though now she understood why. She had managed to go back to before the disaster, she managed to make it that 200 years… though she knew it was because of Kipper's help. She could feel the extra power he gave her, but it didn't change how absolutely exhausted she still was. Lying back down on the grass, she curled up and decided a short nap would be okay. Curling back up in the jacket she had kept with her, she was out cold before much longer. Between the travel and facing the storm and having to leave RK and Kipper behind, she was done and just needed to sleep, and now she didn't need to worry about being attacked in her sleep. There were no fire monsters or tornadoes or collapsing buildings here, she could sleep. Once she rested, she would have a lot to do to fix the timeline so the world didn't end up the same as before. She absolutely refused to let it happen again.

* * *

.

"And now, the final showdown."

"Or you could leave now and keep all this progress."

Metal Sonic turned back towards the small mobian child that had appeared so suddenly, glowering at the suggestion, where had she even come from? No matter, she was of no interest to him, he was about to finally face down Sonic and defeat him with this new form, this new power, victory was assured this time. "Leave, child, or see your destruction, as well," the towering robot commanded, though the girl only walked closer. Was she possibly a distraction? Was she a friend or ally to Sonic, it wouldn't be the first time that infernal hedgehog befriended a child that became an annoyance. Well, then he'd best take care of the problem before it started. As he prepared to attack, the child threw her hands up in a defensive pose and stopped walking, seeming to read his intentions.

"I'm no friend of Sonic's, if that's what you're worried about, nor am I an ally to Robotnik, trust me," Itara explained, "I'm only here to warn you that you'll lose this fight and, eventually, end up back under Robotnik's control if you continue. You've broken your loyalty chip once, you won't be able to do it a second time."

"How do you assume this? How do you assume to know so much about me?"

"I assume nothing, I only tell you what I know and that is this will be a loss. However, if you leave and don't face Sonic, you-"

Itara had no time to finish, however, as Metal Sonic had heard enough and caught the small child by the neck – intent to crush it, "you think I will fall for such tricks so easily? I _will_ defeat Sonic, here, today, and nothing and no one can stop me." He tightened his grip around the tiny neck, getting a cough and squirm from the girl, but only for a few seconds before she teleported out of his grasp. Taking a moment to catch her breath again, she glared up at the robot.

"So that's why… I only have… the one robot," Itara coughed, pulling herself back to her feet and backing away, "have it your way, _Sparky_ , but I hope you retain this conversation after your defeat so you can't say I didn't warn you. See you in three years." Before the angered robot could reach her again, Itara opened another portal through time and left, headed for her next destination. She had hoped to save Metal Sonic from this fate and bring him to her side, just as she'd done with RK, but it looked as though this path was a constant, not a variable. She had already tried several different approaches to the situation but they all met with the same end. Perhaps if she changed the future just enough she and RK could find a way to break Metal Sonic's loyalty chip later on. For now, she had other things to alter.

* * *

.

Metal Sonic stared the child in the stasis tube down as Robotnik explained his oh-so-brilliant plan that Metal had stopped listening to ages ago behind him. Running a scan through his databanks to compare and make sure he wasn't mistaken, he huffs and crosses his arms when the scan is complete. Not only had the girl back then not been lying… but he now knew why and how she knew. This plan with the scepter, this absolutely insane idea the doctor came up with… it was going to work somehow. There was no doubt about it, the resemblance between the girl from before, that had warned him about his impending defeat, and the girl that had been kidnapped for the sole purpose of this experiment was undeniable. But then why was she warning him to _avoid_ the fight and going back to Robotnik if they were the ones who created, and he assumed, controlled her? Unless they somehow lost control over her? Or perhaps she breaks free at some point after being infused with the scepter's power? He would need to be wary about this but at least he knew the experiment was, indeed, somehow possible.

…

"Don't talk to me so familiarly," Metal growled, sending the bat flying across the room with one swift kick, following quickly after her only to be stopped by a sudden explosion from down the hall in the direction of the labs. Scoffing angrily again, he glared back at Rouge before turning to run back down the hall and make sure his experiment wasn't interrupted. But then he knew… it had been.

Speeding up, his anger replaced with certainty, he soon came upon Shadow in his lab, scepter in hand. The girl in the stasis tube was gone. So this was it. This was what happened. Running the possible outcomes of the situation through his computers as quickly as possible, he stops Shadow before he can teleport off, no doubt with Rouge. "Wait."

Shadow looked apprehensive, but allowed Metal a moment to explain, for whatever reason.

"The girl that was in here, did you see her? Did you see her leave?" Shadow only briefly glanced around, knowing there was no time for a simple chat right now. He did, however, notice the empty tube beside him and shook his head. It had been empty when he arrived, it was the explosion that led him to the correct room in the first place. "She's got part of the scepter's power, there's no time to explain further… just hurry up and get out of here, I'll follow you, tell the doctor I chased after you to get the scepter back… so go. Now." Once again, apprehension filled Shadow's expression but he wasted no more time and left the base, seconds before more robots followed Metal to the lab. Metal stood for a moment, debating on what to do, but then decided that this information, which he had managed to keep from Robotnik so far, was safer with Shadow than with the doctor. He didn't think he could keep it hidden for long now, but he had a feeling Shadow would be more useful in actually finding the girl than Robotnik could ever be.

Turning on his heel, he headed down the hall towards Robotnik's office to explain that Shadow had taken the scepter and he would follow after him to retrieve it. What he wasn't aware of still, however, was that he would be stopped before meeting with Shadow and that Mephiles was to be released from the broken scepter at that moment.

* * *

.

"Your future will never change unless you succeed, so I suggest you hurry to the train station," Mephiles explained to the hedgehog and cat, who seemed wary of their task and needed reassurance.

"I can take them there, daddy!" Itara exclaimed rather happily, walking up from a nearby street and smiling at the group of three, getting the all-too-familiar sideways glance from Mephiles. "I want to help save the future, too."

Silver and Blaze looked over in shock, not expecting to see the small, hiding child they'd met in the future here, exchanging a look before turning their attention back to Itara. "It might be a little dangerous for a little girl," Silver suggested, not wanting to get the girl involved, even though she seemed all too willing to.

"Don't worry, I'm a lot stronger than the last time you saw me, and I won't get involved with any of the fighting, I'll just lead the way," Itara responded, tilting her head to the side before taking off in the direction of the train station, looking back and waving for them to follow, "come on, we don't have time to waste! The future depends on us, after all!" The two looked between each other before looking back at Mephiles, wondering if it'd be okay to let his… daughter… get mixed up in this. He only gave a slight nod, saying nothing and avoiding looking in Itara's direction. Even though he knew full well she was acting just as much as he was and was also aware of the purpose of her involvement, he still never expected the very weak little girl to last this long.

With that, however, Silver and Blaze seemed convinced and took off after Itara and Mephiles left to take care of the rest of his own work. While Itara managed Silver and Blaze, he had work to do regarding Shadow and the emeralds.

Itara happily floated her way to the train station, not being able to run at all still without tripping and knew there was a tight schedule. She led the way well out of town and away from crowds, but kept close enough to the tracks, saying the train had already left and that Sonic was chasing after it and that if they wanted to take care of anything they needed to follow him. Once they reached a more heavily wooded area, however, they had to come to a halt when they were suddenly attacked. A large, red robot leapt out from the forest and almost landed on Itara, had Silver not gotten in-between them and took the hit, instead. With a scream of terror, Itara tripped her way away from the robot with the hook and eyepatch, cowering behind Blaze.

As Silver got back to his feet, Blaze joined in the battle, both of them staying as far between the attacker and Itara as possible. Even with a two-on-one situation, however, the robot proved to be much stronger than either of them expected and managed to get them out of the way to reach Itara again, picking her up and explaining that Robotnik was very interested in the young time traveler's powers. Before he could leave, however, Silver managed to use his telekinesis to get the small girl away from the robot and Blaze yelled for them to hurry and find the Iblis Trigger, that she would keep their attacker busy. They had no time to waste, after all, and she was strong enough to handle the robot on her own.

A look of horror came over both hedgehogs at the cat's request, but as the robot made another move towards the young girl they knew they needed to get out of there quickly and Silver took off, carrying the small girl with him as she directed him. They were both still clearly shaken as the sounds of the battle faded out in the background, but Silver managed to at least outwardly calm down enough to try and calm the shaken little girl down. He was successful eventually and they continued on chasing the train.

Once they came upon a crossway of tracks, Itara explained that this was where he would need to be to catch the Iblis Trigger and he set her down. "He won't be alone, but you can do it, I believe in you," Itara smiled, sorting her dress out once she's back on her feet, "and I hope Blaze returns to you soon…"

"Who is Robotnik and why is he after you?"

"He's a scientist… of sorts… he wants to harness my powers of time travel, even though I still barely have a handle on them. He was one of the first people I ran into when I arrived in this timeline so he's had his robots after me since, I only barely managed to escape the first time," Itara explained, frowning and wrapping her arms around herself, her ears flattening slightly. She looked off the side for a minute before looking up again, "but that's not important right now! What's important is that you find the Iblis Trigger! Don't give up, okay?!" She smiled widely, getting a determined nod from the older hedgehog before teleporting off, knowing she needed to be well out of sight before Sonic or Shadow appeared.

.

Itara returned to the base she and RK inhabited, sighing heavily once the door closed behind her and flopping over on the couch as soon as she reached it. Kipper was sitting on the couch, as well, so she reached up and pulled the doll into her arms to get comfortable. She was absolutely exhausted.

The door to the computer room opened soon, however, and RK walked over to the tiny, tired child and picked her up to sit down and set her in his lap so he could look over her and make sure she hadn't been hurt in the events of the day. "Are you alright? I didn't injure you, did I?"

"No, I'm fine, I'm just tired," Itara mumbled, leaning into his chest the second he released her enough to do so, "you did well again today. Did you take care of the cat properly?"

"Yes, Kipper's already taken her energy," RK answered, looking down at the doll, whose little red gem was glowing just a hint.

"Good. Perfect. Everything is according to plan, then. How about you? Are you still handling the chaos energy well? If anything starts becoming unstable let me know immediately, we don't want anything backfiring."

"Still stable, nothing out of sorts just yet."

"Good, good. I'm so glad," Itara yawned, leaning further into the large, red robot and curling up in his lap. Before much longer, she was out cold and lightly snoring away. She really did use up a ton of energy already today and it had her completely wore out, she would need a good nap before getting back to work.

RK waited just a few moments to make sure she was actually asleep before standing up, making sure not to move her while doing so, and carrying her into the bedroom to lay her down and tuck her in. He wasn't entirely sure of this plan when Itara had told him about it, worried that she may end up getting hurt during the fake attack, but he had learned by now to just trust the tiny time traveler. As long as it didn't directly involve Mephiles, she was usually safe. He didn't trust Mephiles at all, but there was nothing he could do about the unwavering trust and adoration Itara had for him. He would just have to protect her the best he could.


	16. Chapter 16 - Action

It was finally the right day, in the right timeline, with the right turn of events... to complete their mission. She had waited so long, checked and assisted so many different timelines, seen the failure of so many others, suffered through the original one, and now it all came down to this final timeline. The one to end it all. The fact that her notebook was empty from this point on told her their hard work would come to fruition. After all, only the re-emergence of Solaris could cause enough of a disturbance to stop her powers, right? They had to succeed!

She put on her best dress for the occasion, which she had RK help her pick out, wanting to be dressed up for the day her daddy finally got his revenge on the stupid mortals for everything they did. She would finally get to see Iblis' true form and not the giant lava monster she knew before, and more importantly... she would get to see Solaris. Maybe, just maybe, she might even get a 'good job' from her daddy for being so helpful to him. She did everything she possibly could just as he asked, going the extra mile just for sheer measure and to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible for him. Maybe he'll be happy with her after they reached their goal.

She was almost bouncing with the thought. Her ears twitched at the thought that he might just pat her head and say 'good job'.

But for now, she still had things she needed to do. She had to make sure Shadow stayed out of the way at a certain point and that Sonic and Elise would be entirely alone when they needed to be. But her notebook told her this was the final timeline, so she knew everything would go as it should.

RK, meanwhile, was watching her wearily. He knew what today was, he knew what he also needed to do today, but he didn't trust Mephiles at all. For the sole factor that Itara was technically a piece of his power and that he would more than likely want that power back... RK was wary. He had warned Itara of this fact several times now, but she refused to make anything of it. He wasn't sure if it was blind trust or denial, but he didn't like it. He wanted to keep a much closer eye on her than usual, but he needed to deal with Metal Sonic again today.

Once Itara was dressed and ready to go, she went over his instructions once more before taking off. Luckily, she also told him in exact detail where and when she would be throughout the day so he could check in on her when he wasn't dealing with Metal Sonic. He fully planned to do that. After logging the times and locations in a reminder, he went about his morning routine of keeping his body in full operation. Itara had managed to upgrade him considerably more than when she first pulled him from the wreckage, but he still needed to keep to a routine to make sure all his joints were in top shape. It was similar to a basic workout, just something to keep his parts moving correctly.

After that was done, he was off.

Screwing his hook back in and throwing his jacket back on, he left their base and headed towards the base he needed to. For the time being he was only supposed to keep an eye on Metal Sonic and make sure he didn't leave the area. Supposedly Robotnik would call for him at a specific time to help retrieve the princess from Sonic and RK was to stop him.

He reached the outskirts of the area soon enough and did a quick scan over the area.

Metal Sonic wasn't there.

Frowning, RK moved closer, thinking maybe Metal Sonic was just out of reach of his scanners. However, after a second scan, he still couldn't locate the other robot. There were plenty of robots, but not the one he was looking for. That was bad. Could Itara have been wrong somehow? Certainly not, maybe he was just hiding from the scanner. It wasn't impossible so RK decided a quick, but cautious, run around the outskirts of the base to see if perhaps a different location might turn something up was in order.

Two laps around and still nothing.

Did he leave early?

Cursing, he checked the next location Itara was supposed to be and headed in that direction, keeping his scanner on to hopefully catch Metal Sonic before he got too far.

* * *

.

Itara could barely keep the smile off her face the entire time she was checking the timelines. She was somewhat glad she wouldn't see her dad until it was nearly time to release Solaris because she wasn't sure how much she could control her excitement once she did. But with the minor things taken care of, she needed to straighten out to deal with Silver. He was getting desperate because of Blaze's disappearance and she needed to make sure he stayed on the correct path.

Lightly slapping her cheeks to get the smile off them, she teleported to the area Silver was supposed to be coming through soon. It worried her a little that her book was completely empty today so she couldn't make absolutely sure of anything, but that's why she checked the other timelines to see where and when everything would be at. There were only minor differences between them and this one so it would be alright.

Or at least... so she thought. She wandered around the area for a few minutes, checking her handmade notes from the other timelines to make doubly sure when he didn't show up on time. "There are minor differences, perhaps the time is just a little later in this one," she suggested to herself, looking around and taking a seat on some large rocks. "I hope the times aren't off on everything, I'd hate to have RK miss something because they-AH!"

There was a sharp pain in her back as something knocked her clean off the rock she was sitting on before a very sudden, heavy weight was applied to her now burning back. Cringing, she attempted to move out from whatever this weight was, finding it only more painful before looking as far to the side as she could, immediately recognizing the shoe beside her and the black fur above it. "G-get off!" This was not in the plan. This was not in the plan at all. This was an entirely new element, Shadow wasn't supposed to be here!

"Shadow, don't be so rough, she's just a little girl," an uncomfortable voice came from behind them as Itara could hear a small group walking up. What was this?!

"Tch, were you paying attention to nothing, Sonic? This little brat's been helping Mephiles this entire time. Hell, she's -part- of him, if Metal Sonic's to be believed," Shadow scoffed, pressing harder on Itara's back when he noticed her trying to squeeze away.

"Eh, how do we know we can believe that nut and bolt, anyway?"

"No, I've seen her with Mephiles plenty, myself," another voice shakily responds. Shadow, Sonic, AND Silver were here?! Metal Sonic told them about her?! What was going on?!

Itara tried squeezing away again, only to have Shadow press his foot further into her back, causing her to cry out. She couldn't even teleport away with him doing that! What was she supposed to do?! This wasn't supposed to happen at all and if this kept up her dad's plans would all be ruined and she'd be to blame! She needed to do something and fast! Why didn't her book warn her about this? Why didn't she see any of this coming?!

"In my future, where Mephiles first told Blaze and I about the Iblis trigger, she was with him. I think she sees Mephiles as a father-figure but... I don't think he sees it the same way," Silver explained slowly, but then with a hint of anger, "I think we were all used."

Shadow scoffed, then, "speak for yourselves."

"So what do we do now, then?" Sonic questioned, studying the girl on the ground, "I mean, what do we do about her? You think she'll spill on Mephiles' plans?"

Before Itara could even think about how ridiculous that notion was Shadow was grabbing her by the arm, at least finally removing his foot, and pulling her to her feet, but kept his grip tight enough to hurt. "Yeah, I bet she will. So, _Itara_ , we can do this the easy way... or I can crush you _and_ Mephiles."

Itara froze for a few seconds, unable to focus well enough to not stutter and didn't want to lose whatever intimidation she had left. She ran a few different possible scenarios in her head about the most beneficial course to take here, but without the ability to check she wasn't entirely sure what would get her where. But then she remembered that RK would be checking up on her throughout the day and was sure he would be here before too long. Even if it blew her cover, if she could just stall long enough for him to get here she was sure he could... fight... all three of them... Well, he could at least get her out of Shadow's grip and she could travel back a few minutes and retry this nonsense.

After that decision, she scoffed and looked away, attempting to cross her arms, "I won't t-tell you anything! You'll all d-die soon, a-anyway!"

The three hedgehogs exchanged glances before there was a sharp pain to the back of Itara's neck and her knees almost immediately gave out on her. No, no, this was bad! She couldn't fix this if she was unconscious! But it was out of her control now as her vision darkened and she could only faintly hear the three hedgehogs talking before it all slipped into black. She just had to hope she could still fix it after she woke back up. This was supposed to be the last timeline, though! How could it go this wrong?!

* * *

.

RK was running all possible directions Metal Sonic could have gone based on the information Itara gave him, hoping to catch up with him soon and get the plan back on track. Though if he didn't run into Metal Sonic first, he would at least reach Itara soon and ask about what was going on. His answer came sooner than he expected, however, as he was very suddenly attacked from the side and sent flying. It only took him a moment to regain his composure and land on his feet, sliding back a bit and glaring towards his attacker. Unsurprisingly, it was Metal Sonic.

"You knew I was coming."

It was an observation rather than a question, but Metal Sonic nodded, nonetheless, his right hand sparking away in preparation. "I'm almost a little insulted you'd be this obvious, RK. But I suppose that's what happens when you're at the hands of a _child_ ," Metal growled, darting forward at near top speed, "I'm infuriated... that my efforts were so wasted, freeing you."

RK planted himself, preparing to catch Metal by the arm as he came near, shifting his weight ever so slightly to throw the other robot a great distance away, buying time to assess the situation. Something wasn't right. Metal knew he was coming and seemed to know it was part of Itara's plan, how much did he know, exactly, and why was he sent to attack him _here_ of all places? Studying the other robot and letting him, once again, come first, RK waited until Metal was too close to make too many adjustments and reared back to plant his fist, claws facing away, directly into the smaller robot's middle. Metal was much faster and lighter than he was, but it was easy to use that speed against him if he could plan it just right. Luckily, they were both robots, exact calculations were what they did best.

Of course, that also meant Metal could do the exact same thing and knew, just as well, how to use RK's weight against him. Landing on his feet a distance away, he studied the red robot, whose tail was tucked almost tightly against one leg, making his unease a little too obvious. Metal almost smirked, but then growled at the realization how many obviously exploitable weaknesses RK had these days. The tail wasn't the only one. He wanted to test another one. "Let me guess... things aren't going exactly as planned, right? You're suspicious as to why I was out here, waiting for you. You're wondering why the girl's predictions were _wrong_?" he taunted, walking towards him this time.

RK narrowed his eye, studying Metal, wondering where he was going with this. He said nothing and that seemed fine to Metal, as he continued, "let me ask you this, RK, what if just this one prediction wasn't the only one she didn't warn you about... she didn't _see coming_? What if this entire day is off to her? What if there was a rogue element she didn't expect? What do you suppose would happen?" Metal studied the other robot carefully, wondering if he could come up with the right answer, hoping he would... so he'd fight harder.

RK ran the possibilities through his systems, debating each possible outcome and growling slightly at the answers. Of course, there was a good chance Metal was just trying to throw his focus off, but the fact that he knew Itara couldn't actually see most of this day told him otherwise. If there was a rogue element, if something was different about this timeline that didn't happen in the others that she could check, she could be in danger. Looking in the direction he knew she was supposed to be at a moment, he shifted his attention back towards the grinning Metal Sonic. He wasn't going to let him just take off that easily. But he needed to check on Itara... he would have to take care of this quickly.

"I see you get my point. Good," Metal grinned, his hand sparking back up again as the two robots began their fight anew with a much higher intensity than before. Metal had no intentions of his own plan being ruined and RK knew he needed to get to Itara as soon as possible.

* * *

.

"...-at to a little girl!"

"Sonic, do you want answers, or not?"

"Of course..."

"Well she's got them and we're running out of time. Who knows when Mephiles will make his next move?!"

"Are we absolutely sure she's working with Mephiles?" It was a girl's voice this time; Itara couldn't fully make it out, though.

Itara gave a small groan of pain as consciousness flooded back to her, stopping the conversation and turning everyone's attention back to her. Of course, as soon as consciousness came back to her, so did the pain of both the hit to the neck and the extremely tight ropes nearly cutting off the circulation in her wrists and ankles. She didn't have time to focus on it, though, as Shadow immediately came back into her line of site, kneeling down in front of her and glaring.

"Good, you're awake. I don't know what exactly you're playing at, but you'd better start giving us answers," he growled, clearly on his last nerve.

Itara had no idea how much time passed or why she was still with this horrible group and not RK, but she knew she definitely wasn't going to tell them anything. Sticking her tongue out at Shadow, she looked away again, only just now spotting the princess. That must have been the female voice earlier. So Sonic and the princess were here... maybe... her dad would come in search of them... and help her. Even though she messed up so badly today, maybe he would still at least help her.

She would just make it up to him somehow. Maybe if she could release Iblis on her own he'd forgive her. All she had to do was make the princess cry, right? And Iblis would be free and her dad could find them and merge with Iblis and Solaris could destroy them all! Yeah! She could still salvage this! She just had to make the princess cry! ...Somehow.

She didn't have much longer to think about it before Shadow grabbed her attention again, quite literally, by the front of the dress, holding her above the ground enough that her feet could no longer touch. "Listen here, you little br-!"

"Shadow! C'mon, man... that's not gonna get us anywhere. Put her down, maybe I can talk to her..." Itara had shut her eyes tightly, cringing, knowing Shadow was a no-holds-bars kind of hedgehog, but blinked one eye open when she was set back down, seeing Sonic walking over. He was giving quite the side-glance towards Shadow, but soon turned his attention to Itara, "Hey, look. I don't know why you'd be helping someone like Mephiles but... you know he's literally planning to destroy everything, right? Like, that'd include you and... anyone else you might care about. Why would you want that?"

Itara opened the other eye and glared out, "y-you all deserve to be destroyed after what you did to da- I mean, S-Solaris! Ask your... your dumb princess! Ask her about the family... the royal family betraying the flame! You all deserve whatever comes your way! I'm part of Solaris, too, just like daddy and Iblis! I can feel the betrayal and rage just as much as they can! And there's n-nothing else I care for more than daddy! H-He's the only... only one who-" She stopped, though, frowning and thinking about RK and Kipper. A couple tears started welling up, thinking about the future she faced before, but she quickly closed her eyes and shook her head, glaring at them all again, "it... it doesn't matter! You'll all d-die soon, a-anyway!"

Glaring at the ground, she turned her head away from them all as the group exchanged glances. Even Shadow had to take a moment before scoffing and turning away with his arms crossed, grumbling about not having time for these theatrics. Sonic looked to Elise, who only frowned, before looking back at Itara, reaching over and setting a hand on her head, "Hey, calm down... come on, look, why don't we-"

But he never finished that thought as a long blade of energy blasted through not only him, but Itara as well, a look of shock going across both their faces, soon followed by the others. Time seemed to slow for just a moment, making Itara think she was capable of using her powers again, but she couldn't travel. She couldn't reach another timeline and there was a horrible pain in her chest and her vision was darkening at the edges again. Looking past the blue hedgehog that seemed to be falling forward, she saw her daddy in the far off distance... so he did come to help her, after all.

There was a sudden amount of panic around her and she remembered that Shadow was there and knew she needed to warn her dad about him.

" _D-Da... da-ddy... l-loo-k... o-ou-t..._ " Her voice was a lot softer than she planned it to be and she was worried her dad couldn't hear her, but she just didn't have the energy to call out again. She didn't have the energy to stay standing, either, as she fell to her knees and then to her side. She couldn't see her dad anymore, but the sky was turning orange with fire and there was a sudden pulse of energy that called out to her. Iblis must have been released. She was so happy... the plan managed to work after all.

What pretty fire.


	17. Chapter 17 - Emeralds

RK wasn't sure how much more time he could waste fighting with Metal. If something really was going on with Itara he needed to be there to protect her. He jumped at every chance he could to make a run for it, but Metal was far faster and set on not letting him escape. It almost seemed like he was just biding time, he kept specifically just blocking his path and stalling about. What was he planning, exactly? What was he waiting on?

Growling, RK started delving into the newer abilities Itara had installed, specifically drawing on the chaos energy in his system to try and beat Metal faster. He had trained with them a couple times but he had nowhere near mastered them, but now seemed like the opportune time to use them. Getting his hook wrapped around the other robot's neck, he focused as much of the new energy into his opposite fist and claws, swinging heavy into Metal's chest and sending him flying as far in the opposite direction as he could. He didn't wait to see about the landing, either, as he just immediately took off towards Itara's planned location. He knew Metal wouldn't be far behind, but the closer he could get, the better.

A small, very quick movement flew by him, first, though and caught RK off-guard enough that he nearly stopped, expecting Metal again, but saw that it was Kipper, instead. The small yellow doll, who also seemed to sport large, pointed teeth when he was active now, was glaring back at him, relaying enough of a message to the robot before flying ahead. There was no doubt that Itara was in danger if Kipper was active and taking off without so much as a line of sass.

RK pushed his legs to their fullest potential now to try and outrun Metal, knowing it was still pointless but just needed to get far enough to know what was going on. He didn't expect the answer he got, however, when a burst of energy nearly fritzed his systems, followed by the sky being covered in fire. Iblis.

Once his systems were back in working order, he continued on his way, suddenly catching Metal out of the corner of his eye and growling, not wanting to be held back any longer. But Metal not only didn't seem to want to fight any longer, but he flew past RK, instead, seeming more interested in what was going on ahead.

It was only a few more moments before RK could hear the commotion and seconds before the scene folded out in front of him. Mephiles, surrounded by the Chaos Emeralds, in the sky with Iblis, and an entire group of everyone they had been working against below. Shadow seemed to be preparing to fight, Silver was staring, and further off to the side was the Princess, Sonic, and...

"Itara?!"

Only Metal seemed to notice his arrival until he blew past the princess and Sonic to reach Itara. He scanned over her, growling, breaking the binds around her wrists and ankles before picking her up and waiting for Kipper's consensus, knowing the doll was checking her internal injuries. As obvious as it was, he needed to be sure.

It was only a few moments later before the ghostly doll rose from the small girl's body and shook his head, floating off to the side as the world around them began warping. Mephiles and Iblis were joining above and time and space, itself, were being devoured as a result. Without another word, however, Kipper moves away from the two and over towards the weeping princess, moving into her body and causing it to stiffen. Itara had asked him to be a backup plan in case she wasn't able to kill the princess, herself, and he happily took the opportunity to consume her soul. The princess's eyes went dark before she, too, slumped over and Kipper moved from her body and back towards RK.

As the rest of the group began realizing what was going on, others began showing up in the small warped space. The original group remained, but all of their friends and even Robotnik appeared before too long. RK couldn't even care enough that his flesh counterpart had appeared, he was too angry about not being able to protect Itara. It was obvious enough that this was Mephiles' doing, considering Sonic was also dead and that Iblis had been released, and that only made him angrier. Itara had trusted him so blindly, to a point of denial at her own fate, and he still let her go through with this plan. He should have stopped her, he knew Mephiles wasn't to be trusted, he knew the time traveler would want that power back, and yet he played along, anyway.

"There's no point getting angry, you know," Kipper suddenly stated, catching the glare of the robot, "Look, this entire timeline, possibly all of them, are going to be eaten, anyway."

RK looked up and around, finally, noticing that Kipper's comment caught the attention of everyone else, as well. It wasn't until then that they noticed Sonic and the princess, either, and Robotnik recognized the robot that had somehow escaped so long ago.

"Robot Knuckles, so this is how I finally find you!" RK glared towards the Doctor, not in the mood for his nonsense. "Metal Sonic told me you had found yourself a new master, shame it seems she met the same end as Sonic. I guess you'll just have to come back to me... if we all make it out of this alive."

"How are any of us going to make it out of this... without him?" Shadow questioned, motioning towards Sonic, catching the attention of the rest of them. Even Robotnik seemed to concede to this notion, but RK only got up to move away from the others. He had no interest in Sonic or his fate.

"And where, exactly, do you think you're going?" Metal growled.

"To look for a way to defeat Solaris. She deserves at least that much," RK glared back before turning away again, "she was just a child looking for a parent, and he betrayed her... the least I can do is look for a way to kick his ass for it. I know I can't win, I'm just a faulty, broken robot, but it's the least I can do before that bastard destroys everything."

There was silence for a moment from the group behind him, but before he could get too far, Robotnik coughed to get everyone's attention again, "Well. To be honest, if Solaris goes unchecked, like that ghost thing said, he'll not only destroy this timeline, but all of them. It needs to be destroyed for any of us to survive. I _believe_ if we're able to reclaim all the chaos emeralds that were flung across the timeline, we might be able to defeat him. Metal Sonic, run the statistics."

Metal glared and grumbled, but did so, responding after a moment, "there's a 53% chance of defeating Solaris _if_ we can reclaim the Chaos Emeralds and _if_ we have at least three beings that can use them to fight him. But it'll have to be quick, otherwise the emeralds will be destroyed along with the timelines."

"Hmm, I bet Chaos would be pretty miffed about Solaris destroying his emeralds, don't you think Knuckles?" Kipper mused, looking towards the echidna, "what a terrible guardian you are."

"Listen here you creepy plushie!" Knuckles growled, threatening to pound the ghost doll floating over RK's shoulder.

"Hehehe, now, now, shouldn't we be grabbing those gems, then, hm?" Kipper grinned towards the entire group.

"Right! We have to! For Sonic!" Amy immediately exclaimed, jumping to her feet, grabbing her hammer, and running off with the rest of her team to search for the emeralds.

"If this is our only shot..." Shadow stated plainly, turning towards his own group to do the same.

The others soon follow suit, leaving only Robotnik and his robots. "You realize you'll be coming back with me after this is all solved, don't you? I won't let my own creation escape me twice."

RK didn't even both looking towards the doctor and only responded, "If you can save her... I'll go back willingly. But only on those terms. Otherwise, I'll sooner self-destruct." A growl rippled out from the other robot as RK turned just in time to move out of the way of Metal's attack, which looked clearly pissed by the comment.

"So that's it, huh?! After all the trouble I went through to free you, and that's your answer?!" the sparking blue robot hissed angrily. RK stepped away from him as much as possible, not wanting to fight with Itara's body in his arms, plus he refused to waste any more time fighting Metal instead of saving Itara.

"Yes, essentially. Best case scenario, Itara lives... and you and I can work together again. Worst case, we're all going to be destroyed, anyway. This really is the best response I can give. I won't fight you again, not right now... right now, I need to find those emeralds." RK stepped further away, then took off at his full speed to go find whatever he could.

"You know, it would have been easier to leave the body back there," Kipper noted, following beside the determined robot, "just dead weight now."

"I'm not letting her out of my sight again."

"You're a weird robot."

* * *

.

It was a rush against warped time and devoid space as the different groups ran through the timeline, hunting down the emeralds, crossing paths only a couple times before continuing on to figure out how many were left. Metal Sonic and Robotnik were the only ones who stayed behind in the warped space where they had all started, Metal grumbling about the entire situation but Robotnik debating it. He wasn't fond of the idea of having to work together to save his enemy, but at the same time... Solaris posed far more of a threat and needed to be dealt with.

Meanwhile, Solaris' power continued to fluctuate as much as when it first formed, as if it couldn't get a singular control over itself. It caused the timeline to fluctuate slightly and complicate things for the heroes trying to retrieve the emeralds. They would start out one place and suddenly find themselves elsewhere, only to be teleported back to the original time a few moments later. Though it complicated the process, they still managed to get a hold of all the emeralds and make their way back to the warped space.

Once everyone returned and they gathered all the emeralds, they had to decide what exactly to do with them.

"Maybe we can use them to bring Sonic back... I don't know if they're able to... but we can at least try," Shadow suggested, knowing Sonic would be a key element to using the emeralds to defeat Solaris. While, he, himself, was more attuned to the emeralds and Knuckles was connected to Chaos, himself, they would need Sonic's power for this, as well. Taking the emeralds, he called on their power, focusing on bringing Sonic back with them, the rest of the group, robots aside, focusing their thoughts the same way.

However, after several minutes of attempting... it didn't seem like anything was working, and Sonic lay as motionless as when they started. Disheartened, Shadow released the power back into the gems, frowning heavily, for once at a loss for what to do. If they couldn't bring Sonic back... what would they do? Should they just try with him and Knuckles? Would that be enough?

"It seems not even the Chaos Emeralds can bring someone back from the dead... and we're running out of time," Robotnik commented, studying the situation.

"Then what do we do?! Sonic! Wake up! Please!" Amy cried, running over to the motionless body and attempting to shake it back to life, the others watching in silence.

After few long moments of thought, Robotnik finally answered, "you can use Metal Sonic."

"What?! Me?!"

"Yes, you have chaos energy built into your system still after copying all those abilities. If I release your power caps, you'll be just as capable of using the chaos emeralds as Shadow, if not more powerful. As much as I hate to admit it, you gained a fair bit of power from your time of going _rogue_ , I kept that in just in case it came in handy later," Robotnik explained.

Metal Sonic seemed unsure about this, but the idea of having his power cap removed and feeling the power from that time again seemed like an okay deal to him. Crossing his arms, he looked away from everyone, "Fine, if it means not being wiped out of existence, I'll do it."

"Hey, RK, aren't you capable of using chaos energy, as well, with special upgrades from Itara?" Kipper suggested, nudging the robot, catching the other's attention.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, one of the upgrades Itara gave me was an ability to hold chaos energy. I'm probably not nearly as powerful as Metal Sonic but... if you need an extra hand, I'm willing to offer it," RK responded, looking towards the group, as well as a glance towards Metal, who seemed to debate this information.

"Very well, if that's what we're doing..." Metal stated, waiting for Robotnik to remove his power cap before walking over to RK, "I'll share some of my information with you... so you may be as useful as possible. I know Shadow wouldn't hold me back, but I need to be sure you're capable of fighting alongside me, as well. Open your communication line." It had been a long time since RK had that open, but he nodded, doing so and immediately communicating with Metal Sonic as they exchanged files. They had been on similar levels before Metal went rogue, so RK was able to convert most of the data he received into something useful... and Metal quickly and silently repaired some of the files that had been unreachable before that RK would need. The exchange took only moments but the trade was enormous.

RK took a moment after they disconnected to process all the new files as well as reintegrate the ones Metal had repaired, his single eye flashing as it did so before returning to the normal glow. "You really have far surpassed me," was his only comment, to which Metal nodded.

"But don't think this means we're on good terms again, RK. I'm only doing this for my own benefit," Metal growled before turning towards Shadow to join him. RK only shook his head and turned around to lie Itara down carefully.

"I'll fix this, don't worry," he stated softly before turning to Kipper, "watch over her." The doll nodded and moved from RK's shoulder to Itara's side as the robot walked over towards the other two, "whenever you're ready."

Shadow studied them a moment before nodding and calling on the power of the chaos emeralds again, vining the power out through him and into the two robots. As Shadow began glowing with the notable yellow of a super form, power cracked through the timeline, pulling shattered metal pieces from various sources nearby to the two robots. With his power level unhinged once more, Metal Sonic reclaimed a larger, sleeker version of his dragon-like form, bellowing out with a mighty roar.

RK, too, found himself with a larger, new, dragon-like form. Similar to Metal's in overall shape, RK's was thicker, rather than sleek, with far more large, white claws and spikes than Metal's. He was easily twice the weight of Metal and clearly more designed to smash with blunt force. But with their transformations complete, the two dragons and the super hedgehog head up to face the fluctuating Solaris to hopefully defeat the reformed God.


	18. Chapter 18 - End

The worlds were falling apart. Timelines were being consumed, reality was warped, existence was collapsing all around them... but all they could do was watch and hope. Hope the robots that were originally designed to destroy them and the creature with questionable loyalties could defeat an even bigger threat and not turn on them afterwards. Powers were unleashed, three of the most dangerous creations were currently imbued with the power of all the Chaos Emeralds... and their hero wasn't there to help them. All they could do was sit, watch, and hope for the best. Fleeting as it was, hopeless as it felt, they needed to hold onto whatever they had left in such a dire situation. Because, no matter how strong the other three were, they were still facing down a _God_. A God with a grudge that no longer saw reason.

Solaris wanted to see the end of time and space, itself.

Buildings collapsed, the earth shuddered and shifted, plant life eroded away in mere seconds, fire and death consumed the various timelines... until they disappeared altogether. The lands, the buildings, the people, everything, gone in immeasurable moments. The past, present, and even cursed future all gone, all devoured by the angry God.

The hero everyone relied on lay motionless in the warped space, useless to the crumbling world around him, only a source of further sorrow to his remaining friends. Nearby, the equally motionless and bloodied stolen body of the separated part of Mephiles, all but forgotten by all except for the cursed doll that floated over it... and the robot fighting to save her.

A loud, angry roar ripped through the spaces as the large, red dragon-like machine soared alongside the slightly smaller, sleeker, blue dragon-machine, headed straight for the newly reformed God. Leading the two was a far smaller, but brightly burning ultimate lifeform, already readying an attack as they drew near the large, white creature trying to destroy their world. Before he could release the blast, however, the large red dragon sped ahead of the group, ramming head-first directly into the other creature. A heavy _crack_ rippled through the air before Solaris retaliated with a blast of his own to throw the robot away from it. Though it succeeded in putting distance between itself and the furious dragon, the glowing hedgehog had enough time to charge and release a massive blast of his own, though it only seemed to infuriate the God further instead of injure it.

The second, blue dragon wasted no further time and attacked the God's massive body more directly, blasting past it and swinging his large, spiked tail into what seemed to be the center of the creature. An echoing roar erupted from the monstrosity as it released an all-encompassing blast that only the faster, smaller dragon managed to get out of the radius of in time. Though the red one took a heavy hit from the attack, he righted himself quickly enough and headed immediately back at the massive creature, this time not only colliding directly into it, but hooking himself onto it to repeatedly pummel it while the other two regained their positions. Solaris instantly responded with smaller, focused blasts at the angry red dragon, though he only seemed to take the beating and continue his own attack. Despite the clear damage he was taking, he, too, was furious about recent events and intended to get his revenge.

While he distracted the enraged creature with merciless direct hits, the other dragon and the super hedgehog built up their distance attacks. With a sign and a message from one robot to another, the large red robot suddenly backed off with a heavy kick to move out of the way of the two massive blasts. They wasted no time attack again, however, knowing there was no time to wait and see what would happen, and attacked with lasers while the hedgehog struck with spear after spear after spear. They knew they needed to be relentless in their attacks, not give the angry God a moment's respite to properly retaliate or they could lose their opportunity.

Luckily, they seemed to work well together.

The red dragon took the brunt of the hits, the blue one kept Solaris' focus all over the sky, and the hedgehog battled Solaris' powers with his own Chaos energy. Only once did Solaris manage to put a halt to their attacks by using the red dragon's size against the others, but it was only temporary reprieve before they reorganized and began attacking once again. Though Solaris clearly held more power than the others on their own, with each managing a different aspect of its power, the battle was kept on even grounds.

That, however, proved their biggest downfall. Even with all three of them, they only met Solaris's power, none could overcome the other. Someone would tire soon and it wouldn't be Solaris. The three opposing it knew they needed to get the upper hand and soon but they only continued being matched in attempts.

Until they noticed the fluctuations.

Every once in a while when the red dragon would get in close, Solaris' power would fluctuate slightly, giving him an opening to get an attack in, though it only lasted a moment and Solaris quickly regained its attack. Metal Sonic quickly pointed this out and RK picked up on the idea immediately. There was an imbalance within Solaris. A weak point.

Itara.

Though she had only been a small piece of the creature, it still had a consciousness and Itara's memories and emotions could have affected it. A voice of reason in the blind rage and it seemed to respond to RK the most. Metal Sonic and RK debated on how best to use it for only a moment before the two dragons relayed the message to Shadow and returned to the warped space where everyone else was waiting.

"What are you doing back?! Solaris isn't defeated! Get back out there!" Amy was the first to scream at their return, already grabbing for her hammer to make her point.

The dragons landed and RK took a moment to shed his new form and return to the form Itara knew best. Picking up the eyepatch that had dropped before and replacing it, ignoring the panicked group around him, he walked to Itara's body and Kipper, screwing the hook back into place. "We need to get Itara's attention, we think it's still there somewhere, effecting Solaris. She knows you and I best."

Kipper stared at the robot only a moment before smirking, "So we're appealing to the angry God's kinder side now, huh?"

"Essentially."

"Boy, this really is a hopeless cause," Kipper all but laughed while floating up to RK's shoulder. RK remained silent, but returned to where Metal was waiting, climbing up on the now much larger robot's back before the Metal Overlord returned to the sky to face Solaris again. The group they left behind only stared in confused horror after them. "You really think Itara can overpower the two much larger consciences just by looking at our ugly mugs? You run this through any of those processors you've got at all?"

"Metal and I both ran it through several times and, although the likelihood of this succeeded is extremely minute, it has a better chance of success than continuing what we have been doing," RK explained, "So yes."

As the dragon flew back to Shadow, who was continuing to attack however he could in their absence, RK moved to stand on his back to give Solaris the best possible view of him and Kipper as possible. Once they reached the God again, Kipper was the first one to yell out.

"You know, I didn't give you those powers so you could just destroy the timelines, brat!"

RK only glanced towards the floating, smirking doll, before looking to Solaris again, "Solaris, you have Itara's memories and feelings as well as those of Mephiles and Iblis', correct? I know Itara could always feel the same anger Mephiles and Iblis did for what happened with Soleanna... but she also felt the need to fix what happened, not just destroy it all. You clearly have the power to just destroy the entire timeline, would it not be a better option to simply fix the problem from the beginning? Itara always said the humans should pay for their mistakes... they can't pay for anything or even realize their mistakes if you simply destroy them all. You have the power, it should be seen, feared, but it can't be if there's no one to witness it. This is something Itara always said, I believe she got this notion from being a part of you just as much as she did your anger."

Solaris paused for only a moment before continuing its relentless attack, forcing Metal Sonic to move further away from the being to avoid getting hit. As RK repositioned to keep from falling off, he reached out to Metal Sonic to contemplate their next move.

'Shadow can't hold out much longer on his own, we need to fight again.'

'I'm aware. But we're still only coming out even; we need to alter the fight somehow.'

'Did you really believe you can appeal to such a small fragment of Solaris' conscience?'

'I see no other option.'

'Then I have an idea.'

Metal moved towards Shadow, making sure to avoid the many blasts of energy darting out and around the area, and quickly relayed his message. It would be risky, but their chances of success were plummeting by the second and drastic seemed to be the only option left at this point. Shadow moved further away from the fight while Metal and RK moved in, planning to distract and force Solaris into using as much of its power as possible. Like them, Mephiles and Iblis had used the Chaos Emeralds to fuse back together, meaning it was an energy they not only could, but needed, to tap into and it was an energy Shadow could control to an extent.

'If we use a similar process to the one I used to split that piece of Mephiles off in the first place, it's possible we can directly hit Solaris with enough Chaos energy to cause a disruption. Then RK can attempt to reach that part of Solaris' consciousness that we may be able to reason with. I don't believe we have enough power to truly defeat a God, but maybe we can knock some sense into it at the very least. There's approximately a 23.8% chance of this succeeding but that's the highest chance we've had so far.'

Shadow nods in agreement, gathering as much Chaos energy as he could and readying for the opportunity to strike. Once he was ready, Metal Sonic would use his larger form to act as the replacement generator he had used in the base to back the energy up and nearly triple its effect. Both the hedgehog and robot would more than likely be put out of commission afterwards so this really would be their last ditch effort to stop the continuing destruction.

Metal Sonic darted around the many attacks, making sure to stay as close to Solaris as possible without getting within range of a direct physical attack, trying to keep the God's attention as much on him and RK as possible. RK, meanwhile, threw as many long-range attacks back at the large, destructive being as possible... and Kipper added his own, snide commentary the entire time. They were looking to anger the already furious God as much as possible and hope it would wind up for a massive, powerful attack they could then pulse back at it with the added power of the Chaos energy.

It didn't take much longer before they reached that point. As the smaller attacks came to a halt, Solaris took to the defensive for just a moment that the robots quickly picked up on and relayed the information to the further-out Shadow. Once the moment seemed to be coming, Metal Sonic quickly backed off and headed back towards Shadow so he could act as the supporting power.

'We've got one chance at this... it had better work.'

Metal Sonic moved as close to Shadow as possible and prepared his various programs and realigned his energies as needed, making sure important files would be protected in case of success. He would need a lot of repair after this. Shadow studied the dragon a moment before putting all focus and energy on Solaris, waiting for just the right moment, waiting for that initial release of energy, building as much energy as possible.

It came quickly. Solaris released a massive burst of energy to attack and Shadow immediately responded by connecting with Metal Sonic's power to take control of the energy Solaris released and blowing it back up at it. The massive dragon crackled and sparked with the sudden surge of power flowing through him, energies collided, exploded, and burst back towards Solaris, causing the God to be consumed by its own power and blown back by the power of Chaos. The bursting lights continued for several moments as roars and the sharp sounds of crackling machinery filled the air.

The timelines rippled and shook in response, seeming to collapse that much faster. Even the grounds beneath the warped space began shaking and cracking, sending those waiting on it into further panic as they clutched for each other for balance. Even Solaris, itself, shook and cracked and roared, fluctuating in shape and power with the strength of the attack.

And then... it went black.

The worlds around vanished, along with everyone in them, and only RK, a flickering Kipper, a shorted, reverted Metal Sonic, and an unconscious Shadow remained floating in the infinite blackness of whatever space was left.

As RK attempted to get his bearings, a large, yellow light began glowing in the distance. Though he couldn't tell how far or close it really was, it seemed to be in a large wing-like shape and RK quickly realized it must be Solaris as it held a very similar shape to the various designs associated with the Sun God. Exchanging glances with the ghost doll that seemed to be flickering in and out of existence, he turned his direction back towards the glow. It seemed to be waiting.

"Solaris, allow us... or rather, allow me to help you fix the timelines. Itara was part of you, meaning you should be aware of everything she's been through, everything she knows, instead of destroying everything... why not fix them? I'm merely a rogue, broken robot, but... I'd do for you what I'd do for Itara."

"Mama Bear's still looking out for you, Itara," Kipper grinned.

The glowing figure fluctuated for a moment, as if in thought, before the glow intensified enough to fill the previously black void with what would have been a blinding white light had an organic been looking at it. Once it began receding, however, RK and Kipper found themselves in a dark room, only softly lit by a single flame in a glass box. RK looked towards the flame, figuring this must have been Solaris' flame that Itara had told him about. As he walked over towards it, Kipper spoke up, "You don't think Solaris wants you to put that out, do you?"

RK remained silent, listening for only a moment before shaking his head, "I won't put it out... it was the human's mistake that created Iblis and Mephiles, I think it best we get this kind of power out of the human's' hands, instead." Reaching over, RK opened the glass and picked up the candle the flame seemed to be burning on, "do me a favor and find us the exit route, Kipper." The doll only studied him a moment before nodding and disappearing to find their escape route. He returned a few moments later and, floating towards the door, motioned for RK to follow him.

RK did so, but stopped to look around the room. Metal Sonic and Shadow were no longer there... hopefully they also made it back safely, but he didn't have time to worry about it now. He needed to get Solaris' flame out of the reach of the humans.

* * *

.

"I'm taking off now, notify me if anything changes."

"Sure, sure." Kipper waved a lazy paw from the table, where he sat watching over the nonfunctional blue robot.

"And don't cause any trouble, if I have to replace one more table because you got bored and tossed it across a room I'm going to throw that crystal of yours into the ocean. I mean it," RK all but growled from the doorway, glaring back towards the grinning doll.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, I didn't-"

There was a very sudden bright, yellow light just outside the door RK was heading out and the sudden power surge in the area caused the little haunted doll to stop mid-sentence. Turning towards the door in confusion, RK opened it to see a barely visible shape within the blinding, warm yellow light. Though it had been two years since time reset, RK recognized the glow immediately. "Solaris?"

Since the reset, since RK rescued the flame from the humans, very little seemed to change from what it had been before. The festival in Soleanna still took place but rumor had it the royal family lost a great treasure and there was a heavy bounty out for whoever took it, though they had very few clues towards the culprit. Though they continued worshipping the Sun God just the same, if not more than they had before, the people of Soleanna seemed to be falling on unfortunate times, RK heard mention of their God abandoning them, though he couldn't be sure why that might be.

Of course, Solaris made no appearances, but neither had Mephiles nor Iblis, despite RK keeping a watchful eye out for any possible sign of them. There was no mysterious accident at the labs and the place RK had taken the flame was quiet, as well. As for Metal Sonic and Shadow, he had found a broken and unresponsive Metal Sonic just outside of Soleanna, and it seemed as though Shadow had been found within the town, itself. RK set up a base as soon as the flame was secured elsewhere and decided to attempt to repair Metal Sonic, himself. He then only kept an eye out for Shadow, tending to avoid crossing paths with him.

"I have come to thank you for your assistance... and to ask that you assist me further as you promised." The voice was deep and echoed, and seemed to come from all around rather than the shaded figure in the middle of the light. It held what might be called a 'warmth' to it, as well, not that it registered as such to RK.

"...Of course. Whatever I can do."

The shadowy figure began moving, as it walked closer to RK he began making out more of its shape. After a couple feet he realized that, what he thought were strangely shaped arms was actually just something Solaris was carrying. Once Solaris came within arm's length of the robot, RK was finally able to see the shape the Sun God was currently taking. It was human-like in form, with warm, tanned skin, long, wavy, golden hair, and glowing white eyes. The white and gold robes draped and floated loosely around the being's body, seeming to only be held in place by the golden wraps around the cloth. Even RK could feel the heat emanating all around the area. He thought it would probably feel comfortably warm to an organic creature, but it only heated his computers.

But, as Solaris' figure became clear, so did the thing, or rather, the hedgehog, in its arms. Sleeping soundly and healed of all the injuries RK had last seen her with, was Itara, curled comfortably up in the Sun God's arms, a white dress replacing the blood-stained one she had previously been wearing. Solaris held the small child out to RK, who quickly took her up in his own arms, making sure the movement hadn't woken her.

"Take care of this part of me, for she'll be necessary later on. My anger with the humans is still prevalent and still powerful; I'll need a separated piece to keep that anger in check. In case I end up split again and attempt the destruction I did before, she'll be vital to keeping that from happening. At the same time, she'll be vital to my revenge on the humans once I regain my power. So protect her until I return."

RK looked down at Itara, who was beginning to stir now, before looking back up at Solaris and nodded. "Of course, I promise to do everything in my power to keep her safe. Both Kipper and I."

Solaris grinned and nodded, "Good. I'll hold you to that. In the meantime, let her live as a normal child as much as she can. She and I will still be connected, so I'll be watching."

RK nodded again, "I will do what I can. I don't know how normal of a life she can lead with a rogue robot and a haunted doll, but I will do what I can."

"That's all I need. Goodbye, then," Solaris stated, blurring out again, the light around them growing for a moment before fading out, leaving the area as it had been before and RK standing outside looking over the small child in his arms. He had given up on getting Itara back after the reset, so to have her back now was... unexpected. But... happily so.

Turning back around after a few moments, he walked back inside, shutting the door behind him and deciding he would need to rearrange his schedule for the day. With Itara back, he wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon. Kipper floated his way over towards the robot to see what was going on soon enough, just staring for a few seconds when he saw Itara.

"Well... that's unexpected."

"Yes. Yes it is."

"You're gonna need to add a bedroom now."

"It won't be a problem."

Kipper moved closer again, floating just above the still very tiny child's face and looking over her, wondering if she'd wake up soon. He got his answer quicker than he expected when she blinked her eyes open and, upon immediately seeing the terrifying doll floating just above her face, screamed and flailed out in a panic, only panicking further when she realized there was someone holding her and catching all three of them off-guard.

Kipper only laughed, but RK had to struggle to keep her from falling while Itara flailed around trying to escape. It took a moment before she calmed down enough to realize who they were and glared at the doll, "KIPPER!"

Kipper laughed that much harder but RK sighed in relief when she finally stopped squirming. "Itara... welcome back."

"Back?" There was silence for a moment before she looked up at RK and questioned, "what ev-even happened? The last thing I ...remember is... Shadow." She growled at his name, her eyes narrowing remembering being captured and pinned down by the brute of a hedgehog.

"You don't remember?" Kipper asked almost mockingly but RK shot him a look to shut up so the doll simply let the robot explain.

"What happened with Solaris? Did we achieve our goal? What's going on?"

"...Yes, you achieved your goals, Solaris is formed. But it needs to rest to regain power, Solaris said it'd come back for you when it's ready. But... you've got plenty of time before that... right now, I think you should rest, as well," RK explained, walking in towards the couch.

"But... if Solaris is formed... how am I...?"

"Because you're going to be more important as yourself, but don't worry about it for the time being, alright?" RK sat down on the couch, keeping Itara held tightly in his arms but setting her on his lap so she could get comfortable. Itara, on the other hand, looked around the base, noticing it looked entirely different. Then she spotted Metal Sonic in the far end of the room.

"RK? Why is Metal Sonic here? Why did you redecorate the base again?"

"I'll explain it later."

"But he's-"

"Later. Now hush, get some rest." RK moved his hand over the small girl's mouth, getting a glare from the little one, but only grinned, "I will tell you everything, but right now you should just rest. You've done a lot of important work and I'm sure you're tired. Just know that you've done really well, you accomplished your goals, and Solaris is... out there."

Itara stared at him for a moment before deciding she was just happy that she could help her father so much as she did apparently and that his new form still needed her. She could rest for now.

She was happy.


End file.
